For the second straight year here at Comerica Center, the West Texas A&M Lady Buffs are leaving with the nets.
After three wins in three days, including a convincing 71-55 victory Sunday afternoon over No. 2 Angelo State, the top-seeded Lady Buffs now have back-to-back LSC Championships.
And like they’ve done all season long, the Lady Buffs won this title as a team, with just two players scoring in double-figures. In fact, tournament MVP Abby Spurgin came off the bench, but scored eight points, had six rebounds and set an LSC Championship record with nine blocked shots on Sunday.
Lexy Hightower, the LSC Player of the Year during the regular season, picked up two fouls in the first minute and went scoreless for the first half. She finished with 13 points, while Deleyah Harris had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Harris and Hightower joined Spurgin on the all-tournament team.
Credit the defense for the Lady Buffs for slowing down an ASU squad that lit up the scoreboard Saturday night for 108 points. But the Belles could barely get half of that total on Sunday. Marquita Daniels scored 10 points, but just two in the second half. De’Anira Moore had 16 points and five rebounds.
After shooting 58 percent on Saturday, the Belles were just 31.9 percent from the floor, making 22 of 69 attempts. ASU made only three of 19 attempts from 3-point land.
ASU falls to 24-5 but will have a spot in next week’s regional tournament, which will likely be hosted by West Texas A&M in Canyon. The Lady Buffs are now 28-3 and should hold onto their No. 1 regional ranking.
In the first half, the Belles raced out to an 18-15 lead after the first quarter. But they ran out of gas after that, scoring just 10, 13 and 14 points in the final three quarters.
West Texas A&M dominated the boards, 47-33 with six different players collecting at least four rebounds each.
2019 Lone Star Conference Women’s Basketball Championship All-Tournament Team
McKinley Bostad, Tarleton State
Marquita Daniels, Angelo State
Lexy Hightower, West Texas A&M
Deleyah Harris, West Texas A&M
Abby Spurgin, West Texas A&M (MVP)
West Texas A&M Notes:
- WT won its 15th LSC tournament title and second straight after cutting down the nets last year in Frisco.
- Since the LSC went to a neutral site tournament in 2008, the Lady Buffs have won seven of the 12 championships.
- Hightower scored all 13 of her points in the second half on Sunday. On Saturday, she scored 10 of 11 points in the second half.
- After tying her season-high with six blocked shots on Saturday, Spurgin blocked nine to set an LSC Championship record (eight).
- With the WT men’s team cutting down the nets earlier in the day, Sunday marks the seventh time that one school has claimed both LSC Championship titles in the same year. Of those seven, WT has been the school five times.
Angelo State Notes:
- ASU falls to 5-4 in their nine LSC Championship final appearances, including a 1-1 record now against the Lady Buffs.
- After scoring 306 points in the last three contests before Sunday, ASU managed only 55 points.
- The Belles had a season-low in points with 55. Previously, their lowest total was 59 – also against West Texas A&M in January.
- The three made 3-pointers on Sunday was a season-low for the Belles, who had 22 3-pointers in the first two games of the tournament.