TexAnns Use Balanced-Attack To Swarm TWU, 61-46 - Lone Star Conference Skip To Main Content
Patrick Green

Women's Basketball By Nick Eatman

TexAnns Use Balanced-Attack To Swarm TWU, 61-46

While Tarleton State has the LSC’s best offensive and defensive player in Kiara Wright, the TexAnns are far from a one-person team. And they proved that Friday in their 61-46 win over Texas Woman’s in the semifinal round of the LSC Championship.

        Brianna Bledsoe scored 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds before fouling out in the final minutes. Meagan O’Dell scored 11 for the TexAnns, who had 10 different players score and out-rebounded the Pioneers 45-32.

        The TexAnns advance to Saturday afternoon’s (3 p.m. tipoff) against the winner of West Texas A&M-Midwestern State.  The championship game will be televised live on CSN Houston's secondary channel, CSN Plus. TSU, which improved to 21-7, swept MSU in the regular season and split with WT, giving the Lady Buffs their only regular-season loss. It will be TSU’s second-ever LSC Championship final appearance and first since winning the title in 2012.

        But whoever Tarleton faces in the finals will get a seemingly well-balanced squad that found a way to get a convincing win without the typical performance from Wright, the LSC’s leading scorer and rebounder. Hampered by foul trouble in the first half, Wright still neared a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. The LSC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, Wright shot just 3 of 13 from the field.

        Wright’s offensive struggles have to be attributed to the play of TWU senior center Mary Kovtun, who set an LSC Championship single-game record with eight blocks. Kovtun also had 10 rebounds to go along with four points. The lone TWU player in double-figure scoring was senior guard Rebekah Cluley, who had 19 points.

        The Pioneers struggled from the floor, making only 14 of 44 shots and just 1 of 6 from 3-point land.

        TWU falls to 16-12 and its chances of making next week’s South Central Regional hang in the balance. The Pioneers entered the weekend ranked eighth for the eight-team field.

    


Tarleton State Notes
  • This is the second time Tarleton and Texas Woman’s have met in the LSC Tournament. In the first meeting in 2009, Tarleton earned its first-ever LSC Tournament victory with a 71-66 victory over TWU.
  • In the first half, Tarleton State’s defense held Texas Woman’s without a field goal from 12:36 to 2:51 – a 9:45 run allowing just six free throws for the Pioneers.
  • The nine minutes played by Brianna Bledsoe in the first half is her lowest first half total of the season.
  • This is the third time this season that foul trouble (2) hindered both Bledsoe and Kiara Wright in the first half of the same game – at Midwestern State on Jan. 15 and at Texas A&M-Commerce on March 1.
  • Tarleton’s defense put together a similar defensive stand in the second half by holding TWU without a field goal from 16:43 to 9:34 – a 7:09 drought. Between the two lengthy defensive stands, Tarleton held TWU without a field goal for a total of 16:54 over the two runs.
  • With nine points and eight rebounds, Kiara Wright’s streak of six straight double-doubles comes to an end. The last time she was held without one was Feb. 12 at Angelo State.
  • This is the first time this season Wright has been held to single-digit scoring (9). The last time she didn’t record at least 10 points in a game was Dec. 18, 2012 against Texas-Permian Basin in Stephenville.
  • This is Brianna Bledsoe’s fourth career double-double and the first time she’s had one in back-to-back games.
  • This was Tarleton’s lowest shooting game from the floor this season. The previous low was .321 at Northeastern State on Nov. 19.
  • Tarleton advances to the second championship game in school history Saturday.
  • Tarleton improves to 8-10 all-time in tournament games and 2-3 in LSC Semifinal games.
 
Texas Woman’s Notes
  • TWU is playing in the LSC tournament for the 11th time in school history and for the fourth year of the last five seasons. It is now 7-10 in LSC Championship play and falls to 2-2 in the semi-finals.
  • The Pioneers came into today’s game off their first neutral site victory of the season in their win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Thursday. With today’s loss, they move to 1-5 in games played on a neutral floor.
  • TWU finished in a tie for second in the final LSC standings with Tarleton State, its highest finish in program history. The two teams split the regular season series.
  • The Pioneers are now 0-2 all-time against the TexAnns in the LSC tournament
  • Mary Kovtun set a new career-high and broke the Lone Star Conference record with eight blocks in today’s game. As the league’s leader in the category, she currently has 53 on the season.
  • After setting a new career-high yesterday with 11 rebounds, Kovtun tallied 10 boards today.
  • Today’s game was the second-lowest scoring output of the season for TWU with just 46 points.
  • The Pioneers trailed the remainder of the contest after their 5-4 lead with 16:52 left in the first half.
  • TWU’s 32 percent shooting from the field today is its third-lowest of the season.