Box Score
STEPHENVILLE – Kiara Wright and Peyton Adamson each topped the 20-point plateau to lead the Tarleton TexAnns (1-0, 0-0) to a 77-48, season-opening win over Texas Wesleyan (2-2, 0-0) at Wisdom Gym Monday night.
 
Tarleton has now won four straight over Texas Wesleyan and leads the all-time series 23-21. They also improved to 15-1 in season openers at Wisdom Gym since joining the NCAA in 1994.
 
The first half started with the TexAnns holding onto a slim one-point lead over a minute and a half into the game.
 
Tarleton got rolling, however, after a layup from Wright off an assist from Shanae Lowrance gave the TexAnns their first field goal of the season and a 3-0 lead.
 
The lead stayed three until 13:20 mark when Karli Moore drained a baseline jumper off an assist from Keyra Johnson and Wright added another layup, this one off a pass from Adamson, to extend the lead to 15-8 with 12:12 left in the opening half.
 
Tarleton maintained the seven-point advantage to push the lead to 20-13, but the TexAnns went on a quick 6-2 push – on three free throws and an Adamson 3-ball – to lead 26-15 with 2:55 to play in the first half.
 
The Rams ended the half with a 6-2 run of their own, but Tarleton went into the break with a 28-21 lead.
 
Out of the break, Adamson got the scoring started with three free throws after being fouled on a long-ball attempt. The junior's free throws started a 12-6 TexAnn run over the first 3:11 of the fresh half to put Tarleton up by a game-high 13 points at 40-27.
 
Tarleton never led by less than double figures the rest of the way and continued to pour on the points until the final buzzer sounded.
 
Adamson and Wright's 20 points led the way for Tarleton's scorers, while Moore chipped in nine off the bench. For Tarleton, 13 players recorded minutes and 11 of them scored including freshmen Johnson (4), Raven McGrath (4), Morgan Ashmore (2) and Erin Sims (2) who recorded their first collegiate points.
 
Wright led the team with 10 rebounds, giving her the first Tarleton double-double of the season and the 14^th of her career.
 
Tarleton was 26-59 from the floor for 44 percent and 5-12 from 3-point land for 42 percent as well as connecting on 20-31 free throws. They held Texas Wesleyan to 27 percent shooting from the floor and 17 percent from 3-point land.
 
The TexAnns will return to action Nov. 20 in Odessa against Texas Permian-Basin.