Five Lone Star Conference women’s basketball teams were unblemished last week as Lubbock Christian, Midwestern State, Texas A&M International, Texas A&M-Commerce and West Texas A&M all posted zeros in the loss column. St. Mary’s and Texas A&M-Kingsville each earned a win in their weekend divisional matchup.

            LSC schedule and results available here: https://lonestarconference.org/calendar.aspx?path=wbball
 
LSC BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
The LSC Women’s Basketball Championship is set for March 2-5-6, 2021, with quarterfinal games on campus sites on Tuesday, March 2. The four winning teams will advance to the final site at the highest remaining seed to play semifinal games on Friday, March 5, followed by the championship game on Saturday, March 6. The top eight teams will qualify for the tournament based on the recently announced basketball point rating system. The divisional champions will automatically qualify for the tournament and be seeded according to the point rating system. All teams must play a minimum of 11 games to qualify for the conference tournament.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSIVE
Allie Schulte, Lubbock Christian, SR, Humanities, G, Nazareth, Texas, Nazareth HS
Allie Schulte had another balanced week, leading LCU to West Division wins over Angelo State, in a home-and-home weekend set. She led LCU offensively averaging 17.5 points per game on .650 shooting from the field, which included 7-of-11 shooting (.636) from three-point range. At Angelo State, Schulte was 4-of-6 from long range, with three in the second half, to lead LCU with 20 points, one off of her career high, in the road victory. The senior guard followed with a team-leading 15 points and a +35 plus/minus in 23 minutes of play Saturday to top the Belles at home. Schulte was 3-of-5 from long range in the win, assisting LCU in knocking down 11 three-pointers in the first half. She also combined for 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 steals.
 
DEFENSIVE
Abby Spurgin, West Texas A&M, SR, Education, C, Fredericksburg, Texas, Fredericksburg HS
Abby Spurgin was a dominant force in the paint for the Lady Buffs this past week as she led WT to a combined three wins over Oklahoma Baptist and UT Permian Basin to move to 6-1 overall with a 5-1 mark. The senior led the Lady Buffs to a place in the record book with seven of the team’s 16 blocks against Oklahoma Baptist which tied a program and conference record for a single game. Spurgin’s seven rejections moved her career total to 186 as she sits just 12 blocks shy of Alicia Saunders (2004-07) for second place on WT's all-time list with 198. The Fredericksburg native also went 16-of-35 (.457) from the field including 9-of-13 (.693) from the charity stripe to average 13.7 points per game to go along with 21 total rebounds (seven offensive, 14 defensive), one assist and one steal.
 
WEEKLY AWARDS
Offensive
D-14    Ashton Duncan, Lubbock Christian
D-21    Dyani Robinson, Texas A&M-Commerce
J-5       Lexy Hightower, West Texas A&M
J-11     Brooklin Bain, Oklahoma Christian
J-18     Allie Schulte, Lubbock Christian 

Defensive
D-14    Anastacia Mickens, Texas A&M-Kingsville
D-21    Juliana Louis, Texas A&M-Commerce
J-5       Nicole Heyn, Texas A&M International
J-11     Haevyn Risley, Midwestern State
J-18     Abby Spurgin, West Texas A&M
 
SELECTED NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
      DesiRay Kernal, Texas A&M-Commerce, helped provide suffocating defense and come up with big stops down the stretch as they took down the Cameron Aggies on the road this weekend, 89-71. She grabbed a season-high six rebounds and snagged eight total, leading the team in that category. The sophomore had active hands the entire game, swatting one ball away at the rim and accumulating a season-high four steals in the A&M-Commerce victory. Kernal was a part of a Lion defensive rotation that held the Aggies to just 3-of-15 from beyond the arc and 38.7-field goal percentage in the game. As a team, the Lions forced 19 turnovers and turned that into 18 points on the offensive end. A&M-Commerce ranks eighth in the LSC in scoring defense, giving up just 64.5 points per game. The Lions also are fourth in the conference in turnover margin at +4.17 and third in assist/turnover ratio at +0.77.
 
     Emma Middleton, Lubbock Christian, played a part in LCU's 2-0 week, which involved a home-and-home West Division sweep of Angelo State. She averaged 10.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.5 blocks a game in an average of 20 minutes of play in the two wins. The senior posted 14 points and seven boards Thursday (1/14) and followed with six points, five rebounds and a +22 plus/minus Saturday (1/16). She averaged a +17 on the week and combined for four steals and three blocks.
 
      Dyani Robinson, Texas A&M-Commerce, led the Lions to a win over the Cameron Aggies after missing three straight games. Her career-best performance came on the road where she put up career-highs in points (23), minutes (31) and free throws. She went 10-for-10 from the charity stripe and was the seventh player in Division II to shoot perfectly from the free throw line with at least 10 attempts. The sophomore added a season-high five assists and a block. Her performance helped keep A&M-Commerce at the top of the Lone Star Conference scoring chart, averaging 78.2 points per game. She leads the team in scoring with 21.7 points per game in just three contests so far this season. The 89-71 win over the Aggies is the second-highest scoring performance by a team in the LSC so far this year. Robinson, who also is second for the Lions in minutes at 29.3 per game is the former LSC Freshman of the Year and shooting at a 48.8 clip so far this year.
 
      Frances King, Midwestern State, scored an efficient 19.5 points per game to lead Midwestern State to a weekend sweep of UT Tyler. The sophomore from Rockdale shot 63.6 percent from the field with four 3-pointers and averaged five assists per game as the Mustangs extended their home court winning streak to seven games. King connected on 7-of-10 shots with two 3-pointers to finish with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in an 82-49 win on Friday. She closed the weekend shooting 7-of-12 from the floor with two more treys to book 19 points and five assists in a 75-50 victory on Saturday.
 
      Lexy Hightower, West Texas A&M, continued to dominate for the Lady Buffs this past week as they picked up victories over Oklahoma Baptist and UT Permian Basin (twice) to move to 6-1 overall with a 5-1 mark in league action. The Amarillo High product went 23-of-39 (59%) from the floor including 7-of-18 (38.9%) from deep and a perfect 2-of-2 from the free throw line to average 18.3 points per game to go along with eight rebounds (two offensive, eight defensive), 15 assists, five steals and a block. Hightower has now scored at least 20 points in five of WT's seven games this season, she has reached the 20-point plateau 23 times in her career. Hightower connected on seven three-pointers during the week to move into a tie for third place on WT's all-time made three-pointers list with Holly Isaacs (2006-10 / 209). She is also making her way up the program's all-time scoring list, sitting just eight points shy of Lori DeShields (1993-97) in 10th place with 1,427.
 
      Janessa Payne, Texas A&M-Kingsville, paced the Javelinas on offense in a weekend split with St. Mary's as she averaged 14 points per game to raise her season average to 9.3, including a double-digit effort in five of the last six games. She started the week with 18 points and six rebounds in a hard-fought loss as she shot 6-for-12 from beyond the arc and followed that up with 10 points in Saturday's win behind a 4-for-6 effort from the floor and 2-for-3 from long range. On the year, Payne is shooting .452 from the perimeter on a 19-for-42 rate, fourth in the league in 3-point percentage.