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SAN ANGELO – The Tarleton TexAnns trailed by 11 in the first half of the Lone Star Conference South Division game at Angelo State, but the TexAnns stormed back to take the regular season finale Saturday, 62-49.
Tarleton improved to 22-5 overall and 9-3 in the LSC South Division after outscoring the home team 36-17 in the second half. The 22 wins is the most for a TexAnn team since the 1991-92 season that saw Tarleton win 30 games.
“Angelo just needed a win to make it to the conference tournament, and we knew before we came here they would be ready to play,” said head coach Ronnie Hearne. “After the first few minutes of the first half, our players stepped up and cut the deficit in half by halftime. Then in the second half, our post players stepped up, and overall, we did a better job of shot selection and getting the ball to the basket.”
The TexAnns got their first win ever in ASU's Junell Center after seven previous tries as the TexAnns shot 54.8 percent from the floor in the second half to take the victory to propel the purple and white into the LSC Championship Tournament three-game winning streak.
“We got some quality minutes out of several of our players tonight, and it was a good win to propel us into the playoffs,” Hearne said.
Christie Rasmussen had a jumper to get the game going before Shelby Adamson had two layups to give the TexAnns a 4-2 lead. The Belles then scored four straight to take a 10-4 lead with 15:44 on the clock before Adamson and Kelsey Benford had buckets for the Texans to cut the lead to two. Following two ASU free throws, Adamson had a bonus shot followed by an old-fashioned three-point play by JoAnne Jones to tie the game at 12 with 13 minutes remaining in the half.
ASU would outscore the visitors 11-0 over the next five minutes to take a 23-12 lead. Jones had a putback before Paige Weishuhn and Rasmussen had buckets for the home team. Tarleton then went on a 10-2 run to cut the lead to five, 29-22 with 1:55 on the clock. Lisa Parker had a three to start the run while Shedera Bowman had a layup, Jones a jumper and Morgan Stehling nailed a three to close the run.
Weishuhn had a three from the corner with 57.4 seconds left in the first period before a layup by Adamson gave the game its halftime score with the 'Belles leading 32-26.
Tarleton shot just 33.2 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes while ASU shot 56.5 percent .
A steal by Adamson led to a fastbreak layup for Stehling to start the second half when Adamson hit her teammate for the layup. Brittany Haley then got her first bucket of the game for the TexAnns to cut the lead to two (32-30) with just under 19 minutes left, but ASU got a bucket on the opposite end. Haley got a bucket before a TexAnn steal led to an Adamson scoop shot to tie the game at 34 at 17:32.
Forty-nine seconds later, Jones gave the TexAnns the lead for the first time since the 18:50-mark of the first half. Stehling added to the lead with a turnaround jumper to make it a 38-34 advantage, but Camille Perkins had two free throws before Leah LeMaire tied the game with a layup at 14:49, 38-38. Haley returned the lead to Tarleton with a free throw. The two teams then traded buckets before a left-handed layup by Benford made it 43-40.
With just under 11 minutes remaining in the contest, Adamson had a bucket to make it 45-40 TexAnns, Tarleton's largest lead to that point, but an Alix Flores putback cut the lead to three. Tori Skarke then hit a three for Tarleton with 10:04 on the clock to make it 48-42. Flores got a jumper in the paint at 7:21 to cut the lead to four before Adamson got another scoop through a double-team to make it 50-44 with just under seven minutes remaining.
At 6:31, Perkins hit the backend of a two-shot foul prior Benson getting a open layup at 5:12 to make it 52-45 TexAnns. Benford then got a layup after a Sonya Sundberg pass at 4:40 to give Tarleton a nine-point lead. Flores got a bucket before a Haley layup made it 56-47. Adamson then hit Benford for another layup at 1:34 to make it an 11-point advantage for the TexAnns. Haley then had a layup and was fouled, but the junior missed the bonus shot; however, Tarleton had a 60-47 lead.
Haley had a putback at 9.1 to give the TexAnns their largest lead of the night before Casie Adams had a shot to beat the final buzzer, but Tarleton took the 62-49 victory.
The TexAnns were led by Adamson with 15 points while Benford had 12 and Haley 11. Haley led the team with eight rebounds and Benford was second with seven.
Tarleton averaged .438 from the floor (28-64), .500 from the three-point arc (3-6) and .375 from the charity stripe (3-8). The TexAnns outrebounded ASU 37-30 and Tarleton outscored the home team in the paint 40-26. The visitors also outscored the home team 20-8 in points off turnovers and 20-5 off the bench.
The TexAnns will return to action on Thursday, March 4 at noon against Texas Woman's in the first round of the LSC Championship Tournament in Bartlesville, Okla.
