Box Score
STEPHENVILLE – Morgan Stehling scored a game-high 15 points and JoAnne Jones added another 11 on their way to guiding the No. 24 Tarleton TexAnns to a 55-43 win over Eastern New Mexico Wednesday night at Wisdom Gym.
Jones scored her last basket of the night with 4:41 left in the second-half, which gave her 1,000 points for her career. She became just the 19th player in Tarleton TexAnn history to score 1,000 or more points.
Meanwhile, head coach Ronnie Hearne earned his 115th win of his career at Tarleton as the TexAnns had to erase a five-point deficit at halftime.
The TexAnns were held to their lowest output of the season in the first-half, scoring just 16 points on 6-of-25 (.240) shooting. The TexAnn defense limited the Zias to just 5-of-16 (.313), but ENMU countered by going 9-of-13 from the charity stripe to take a 21-16 lead into the break.
The TexAnns erased an early 6-2 deficit, scoring the next eight points to take a 10-6 lead with 12:36 left to play in the period, but ENMU went on a 7-1 run to take a 13-11 lead with 10:06 remaining. Brittnie Haley scored on a lay-up with 8:31 left in the period, but that would prove to be the final field goal the TexAnns would score in the half – forced to score just three more points from the charity stripe and take the five-point deficit into the locker room.
Shelby Adamson led the TexAnns with six points and Haley accounted for five points. Tarleton forced 14 turnovers in the first period, but were limited to just five points off of them.
The TexAnns finally put the pieces together in the second-half, scoring the first 10 points over the first 2:40 into the period to take a 26-21 lead. ENMU would keep the TexAnns within four or five points over the next five minutes, but a 7-0 run from the 12:11 mark to 9:45 but the TexAnns up by 11, 41-30.
Tarleton increased its lead to 16 points with a pair of free throws from Haley at the 4:12 mark and ENMU would never recover from the deficit. The Zias did manage to pull within seven points of the TexAnns with 3:05 left, but they were forced to foul and Tarleton went 7-of-8 from the foul line down the stretch and pulled away with the 12-point victory.
Adamson poured in 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had a team-high three steals for the TexAnns. Haley led the team with nine boards and three blocks on the evening. Jones pulled down four rebounds, with all of them coming on the offensive side of the court, and moved into 10th-place all-time with 568 career rebounds.
After shooting less than .250 percent from the field in the first-half, Tarleton connected on more than half (.524) its shots in the second-half and finished the game shooting .370 percent despite only shooting .154 percent from beyond the arc. The TexAnns and Zias each had 34 rebounds, snapping Tarleton's nine-game streak of out-rebounding its opponents.
Cat Clay led the Zias with 11 points and nine rebounds on the night. The 6-1 junior forward came in averaging 15 points a game, but was limited to four-under her average by a stingy Tarleton defense. The Zias finished shooting .295 percent from the field, but ENMU's bench did manage to outscore the Tarleton bench, 17-5.
The TexAnns will return to the court this Saturday when Tarleton travels to Canyon to face No. 11 West Texas A&M in a battle of top-25 teams. Tip-off at United Bank Center is set for 4 p.m.
