VANESSA CRUZ SENIOR DAY | PHOTO GALLERY 

LONGVIEW – LeTourneau University women's basketball team secured its highest win total since 2016 in Saturday's 69-56 victory over Belhaven in the final regular season game at Solheim Arena.

Flora Akingbade finished with a career-best 17 points, 13 rebounds, a block and a steal, and Micayla Mikulski had 17 points and seven rebounds – each hitting five field goals in a knock down performance. Akingbade's 13 boards fell one shy of her season high as she notched her second double-double of the year. She was 7-for-7 at the free throw line.

The YellowJackets (14-11, 10-6 American Southwest Conference) matched their most wins in league play since 2017. They'll go after win 15 against Hardin-Simmons in the ASC quarterfinals 5 p.m. Thursday at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Senior Vanessa Cruz, who finished with seven points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals, scored less than a minute into the second half to give the Jackets a nine-point lead. Mikulski buried a triple with 5:25 to go in the third period to extend the lead to 52-35. Belhaven (14-11, 7-9) cut it to 12 with 3:18 in the quarter, but Ty Moon's free throw in the closing seconds sent the YellowJackets into the fourth up 18.

The Blazers trimmed it down to 12 with 7:50 to play, but Keauna Whitfield scored in the paint less than a minute later on a feed from Cruz, and Akingbade converted a lay-in at the 6:08 mark to bump the lead back to 18. Belhaven never cut it under double digits the rest of the way.

The YellowJackets sank 18 of 21 free throws, and outrebounded the Blazers, 68-49.

Whitfield finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Scruffy Hopkins had seven points, 10 boards, a block and a steal. Mariah Collins had 21 points, and Keke Lyles 13 for the Blazers.

Cruz, who put a patent on the hesitation dribble drive, knocked down a triple, and had two of her assists in a high-octane first quarter when the Jackets outscored the Blazers, 26-20. She used the hesitation drive to shake defenders in the second half to give the YellowJackets some separation in a game that featured seven lead changes, and saw LETU cling to a 36-31 halftime lead.

Cruz's all-around game helped the Jackets secure the most wins in Cassi Rozanski's three-year tenure.

"Just coming here and knowing the group of girls that I was playing with, I knew we were going to be successful," Cruz said. "Yesterday in film, we were going over Belhaven's film, and out of nowhere we were waiting for Coach Marc, and she (Cassi Rozanski) said, 'Let's go back to Vanessa's high school highlight tape.' She found my highlight tape, and I don't know where. I'm the exact same player, hesitation and everything. My whole style of play was the exact same."

Cruz was honored on Senior Day for her one year in Longview after transferring from Division II Dominican University of California, where she set the school's assist record.

"Coach Marc (Rozanski) found me at a time where I didn't know where I was going, and I'm grateful he did," Cruz said. "There's nowhere I'd rather end my college career than here with these girls. I just want to thank my teammates and coaches, my coaches for finding me and believing in me, and seeing something in me to want to lead their team."

As has been the case in multiple occasions at Solheim Arena, as broadcaster Gary Richards told you throughout the season on the Buzz Vision Network, on this day, she and the YellowJackets were in Cruz Control.