Championship Central
By NICK EATMAN
FRISCO, Texas – For the second straight night, No. 1 seed Texas Woman’s found itself in a battle at the half. But once again, the Pioneers figured out a way to seize control and advance to the next round.
Saturday night against Texas A&M International, TWU used a 20-5 run to start the third quarter and managed to keep the Dustdevils at bay, cruising to a comfortable 84-72 win at Comerica Center.
Ashley Ingram, the LSC Player of the Year, scored 27 points with seven rebounds and seven assists to help put the Pioneers back in the LSC Championship for the second straight year. This time, TWU is hoping to cut down the nets and give the program its first tournament title since 2011. They will face either UT Tyler or UT Permian-Basin on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
For TAMIU, the Dustdevils looked like a team that just finished off an epic triple-overtime win over Lubbock Christian less than 24 hours ago with a wild, 90-80 game on Friday, the only triple-overtime game in LSC Championship history.
On Saturday, TAMIU jumped out to a 10-2 lead and were able to stay in front, leading by six, 27-21 early in the second quarter. But that’s where the tide turned, led by Ingram, After scoring only eight points in Friday’s win, Ingram scored seven points in an 11-4 run by the Pioneers just before the half.
But in the third quarter, that’s where the game got out of control. Jada Celsur hit two straight 3-pointers to ignite a 13-0 run. From there, TWU never led by less than 10 and eventually won the game by 12.
Leila Patel and Gionna Carr each scored 12 and Celsur added 11.
Raiana Brown had 25 points and seven rebounds for the Dustdevils, while Samiya Worrell had 14 and Ngozi Obineke scored 11.
TWU Notes:
- TWU out-rebounded TAMIU 33-18 and held a 21-9 advantage on bench points.
- Ashley Ingram ranks second in the LSC in scoring at 20.2 points per game and finished with 27, following an 8-point performance on Friday.
- TWU leads conference with an 11.7 scoring margin average and have won two games in this tournament by 11 and 12.
- The victory was the 21st double-digit win for TWU, which improved to 28-4.
TAMIU Notes:
- Raiana Brown played 38 minutes on Saturday, after playing 39 minutes in Friday’s triple-overtime win over LCU.
- Brown scored 25 points Saturday, giving her 51 for the tournament as she scored 25 on Friday.
- TAMIU is now 2-3 in the LSC Championship.