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ADA, Okla. – The Tarleton TexAnns matched the program's best start in school history Saturday at East Central as the TexAnns improved to 8-0 to open the 2009-10 campaign with an 80-61 victory over the Lady Tigers in Ada, Okla.

“It is now to the point where you don't want to lose a game and feel what losing feels like,” said Tarleton head coach Ronnie Hearne. “You don't want to see these girls lose, but at the same time we don't feel like there is any pressure.  We just want to keep it going, that is the main thing.”

Tarleton shot almost 44 percent from the floor and outrebounded ECU 48-32 while cruising to the victory in Kerr Activities Center.

The score was close through most of the first half before the TexAnns pulled away in the final moments of the opening period.  Tarleton then gave up just 26 points in the second half, 11 of which came in the final five minutes.

“I thought defensively we didn't play well in the first half, but we focused on that at halftime, and we came out and played much better defense.”

Neither team scored until Casi Rawls put the ball in the hoop for the home team at 18:39 before the TexAnns scored the next four to take and early lead.  #JoAnne Jones and Morgan Stehling# had points for Tarleton to give them the early advantage.  The two teams traded baskets before ECU took a 10-6 lead.

Stehling ended an almost three-minute bucket drought for the TexAnns when she hit a three off a pass from Sonya Sundberg.  The bucket cut the lead to one, 10-9.  Again, the two teams traded baskets as the TexAnns trailed 16-13 with 11:55 on the clock.  Tarleton then scored the next six points on layups by Brittnie Haley, Stehling and Haley again.  Tarleton had a 19-16 lead with 10:39 remaining in the first half.

With the Texans behind 26-25 at the 5:02-mark Tori Skarke hit a three 17 seconds later before Rawls did the same on the opposite end.  Jones and Stehling each had a layup for Tarleton to put the TexAnns ahead 32-29, and Jones followed with another bucket for the purple and white. 

A Indhira Ramirez three at 2:44 cut the lead to two before Jones had a free throw for Tarleton on the other end of the floor.  Jourdan Clark added a free throw for the Lady Tigers to make it 35-33, but Skarke had a three with 58.6 seconds left on the clock and another at 31.9 seconds.  Rawls had two free throws inbetween the long range shots from the TexAnn sophomore.  Tarleton got a turnover with just 24 seconds left in the first period, and Kelsey Benford got a rebound and a jumpshot at the buzzer to give the TexAnns a 43-35 lead at the break.

The TexAnns opened the second half scoring the first five points with a putback by a Haley, a free throw by Haley and a layup by Skarke.  Danielle Cox had a three for the Lady Tigers to cut the lead to 10, but Tarleton then scored the next seven points.  Halley had four free throws, Shelby Adamson had a charity shot and Jones a putback.  Tarleton led 55-38 with 15:45 remaining in the period.

The Lady Tigers' next bucket came at 14:49 when Cox had a layup for the home team.  Two free throws by Haley and a putback by Jones stretched Tarleton's lead to 19 before Ramirez had back-to-back jumpers for ECU to make it 59-44 with 12:02 remaining in the contest.  Regan Browne had a layup for the Lady Tigers before Haley had an old-fashioned three-point play for the TexAnns.

 Haley started a 9-0 run against the Lady Tigers as Tarleton took a 69-46 advantage.  Ramirez then had a layup for the home team before Adamson had a layup and Skarke two free throws to give the TexAnns a 73-48 lead. Somewhere in the final six minutes, two points were given to the wrong team, but as they added the two points to the TexAnns' score, they never took the score off the Lady Tigers' side of the board, so two phantom points remain added to the final score.

The Lady Tigers scored 11 of the final 16 points over the final five minutes, but the TexAnns still claimed an 80-61 victory.

The TexAnns were led by Haley with 17 points while Skarke (14), Jones (13), Stehling (13) and Adamson (10) also scored in double digits.  Haley had nine rebounds as did Jones to lead the visitors.

Tarleton averaged .438 from the floor (28-64), .286 from the three-point arc (6-21) and .720 from the charity stripe (18-25).

The Lady Tigers were led by Ramirez with 14 points and Cox with 10.  Ramirez also led the team with seven boards.

ECU averaged .397 from the floor (23-58), .500 from the arc (6-12) and .529 from the line (9-17).

Tarleton will return to action on the road on Monday, Dec. 14 at Southeastern Oklahoma. Tip-off in Durant, Okla. is set for 6 p.m.