Lubbock Christian was picked to finish atop the league for the second-straight year in the 2020-21 Lone Star Conference women’s basketball preseason poll announced on Tuesday.
The preseason poll reflects the opinions of LSC head coaches, sports information directors and various media representatives throughout the region.
LCU collected 553 total points and received 15 of 39 first-place votes to narrowly edge West Texas A&M for the top spot in the preseason poll. The Lady Chaps rounded out last season with their first LSC title ending the campaign 28-3 before the NCAA Division II postseason was canceled due to COVID-19.
WT finished just behind LCU in the poll securing an identical 15 first-place votes and 551 total points. The Lady Buffs were 27-6 in 2019-20 and advanced to the semifinals of the LSC tournament. WT had secured a berth in the South Central Regional before the season was cut short.
Texas A&M-Commerce ranked third with nine first-place votes and 531 points. The Lions lost just three games last year to end the year with a 28-3 record and a second-place finish at the 2020 LSC Women’s Basketball Championship. TAMUC set a program record for wins in a season and captured a place in the DII postseason tournament.
Angelo State was predicted to finish fourth with 428 points. The Rambelles are coming off of an 18-10 season in which they progressed to the LSC tournament quarterfinals and earned an NCAA tournament berth.
St. Mary’s received 400 points in the preseason poll and was voted fifth among the 15 teams. The Rattlers were 14-14 in 2019-20 and advanced to the LSC quarterfinals.
St. Edward’s landed the sixth spot in the poll with 370 points after completing an 18-11 year that ended in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
Rounding out the top ten are Cameron (336), UAFS (302), Midwestern State (261) and Texas Woman’s (249).
WT’s Lexy Hightower earned LSC Preseason Player of the Year honors for the second consecutive season as the senior makes her return to the court in 2020. She obtained 13 of the 39 votes cast for the award.
Hightower, who missed last season due to injury, was the LSC Player of the Year in 2019 after averaging 16.2 points to lead the Lady Buffs and rank second in the league in scoring average. The Amarillo native led the conference in three-point shooting in 2018-19 after hitting 83-of-179 (46.4%) of her shots from beyond the arc. She also garnered all-American accolades from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) for the second time in her career.
This year, 15 women’s teams will compete in three divisions (North, South and West) consisting of five institutions each. Each team is scheduled to play 20 conference games with divisional and crossover competition throughout the year. During weeks in which a team plays a divisional opponent, each institution will have one contest at home and one on the road. When a team faces an opponent from outside its division, both crossover games will be played at the same site on back-to-back days.
The conference tournament will consist of the top eight women’s teams with first-round games on-campus on Tuesday, March 2 followed by the four winning teams advancing to the final site at the highest remaining seed on Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6.
All 15 women’s basketball programs competing in the league this season will be featured during the LSC Basketball Online Preseason Media Day on Tuesday, Dec. 1. Interviews with each of the LSC’s head coaches taking part in the conference schedule will be available on the conference’s YouTube page (
www.youtube.com/lscmedia31), social media and the LSC website. The league’s men’s basketball online media day will occur on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
2020-21 Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll
| Rank |
School |
1st |
Total Points |
| 1. |
Lubbock Christian |
15 |
553 |
| 2. |
West Texas A&M |
15 |
551 |
| 3. |
Texas A&M-Commerce |
9 |
531 |
| 4. |
Angelo State |
|
428 |
| 5. |
St. Mary's |
|
400 |
| 6. |
St. Edward's |
|
370 |
| 7. |
Cameron |
|
336 |
| 8. |
UAFS |
|
302 |
| 9. |
Midwestern State |
|
261 |
| 10. |
Texas Woman's |
|
249 |
| 11. |
Oklahoma Christian |
|
191 |
| 12. |
Texas A&M International |
|
180 |
| 13. |
UT Permian Basin |
|
156 |
| 14. |
Texas A&M-Kingsville |
|
114 |
| 15. |
UT Tyler |
|
58 |