LONGVIEW – LeTourneau University women's basketball team moved back to .500 with a 74-57 win over Sul Ross State Thursday night.
 
The YellowJackets (7-7, 3-2 American Southwest Conference) improved to 4-3 at home in a game they needed to respond from early punches by the Lobos (4-11, 2-4). Sul Ross State jumped out to a 12-0 lead midway through the first quarter, but the Jackets scrapped back in it, trimming the deficit to three at the end of the first quarter.
 
"We didn't lose our composure," LETU coach Cassi Rozanski said. "They just kind of chipped away at it."
 
Ty Moon's triple with 4:41 to play in the first half gave LETU its first lead, 26-24. Vanessa Cruz, who finished with 13 points, five rebounds, five steals and three assists, hit a layup with 41 seconds to play in the half to put the Jackets up six. Chandre Nunez, who scored 27 points for the Lobos on 11 of 14 shooting, gave the lead back to SRSU a little over a minute into the second half. Micayla Mikulski's lay-in at the 5:43 mark put LETU back in front, 40-38. Cruz converted a three-point play to extend the lead to nine with 2:33 left in the third.
 
The Lobos cut it to five on a layup by Maria Maldonado before the end of the third, but Cruz knocked down a jumper in the paint with 7:55 remaining to push the lead back to nine. Nunez's triple a little over a minute later pulled SRSU within three, but Keauna Whitfield buried a 3-pointer with 3:24 remaining to stretch the gap back to nine.
 
"A lot of people don't expect us to do good this year, based on last year's record, but we're a completely different team," Cruz said. "When we play together, and like we did tonight, nobody can stop us."
 
Whitfield finished with 27 points on 8 of 16 shooting and 8-for-9 from the free throw line. Moon and Mikulski each had seven points for the YellowJackets, who had 14 offensive rebounds to Sul Ross State's five.

Cruz's five steals is a career-high. The YellowJackets forced 25 turnovers, coming away with 15 steals. It's the seventh time in the last eight games LETU has produced double-digit steals. 
 
LETU will host Howard Payne 1 p.m. Saturday.