Box Score DENTON – Kiara Wright had her best day of the season Saturday afternoon en route to leading Tarleton (3-2, 1-0) to a 72-60 conference-opening victory over Texas Woman's (2-5, 0-2) at Kitty Magee Arena.
 
The junior center from Pittsburg was one point and one rebound short of career highs in both categories as she led the TexAnns with 22 points and 17 rebounds. She was one of three TexAnns in double figures on the day.
 
Tarleton is now 24-10 in the all-time series against Texas Woman's and 10-9 in conference openers since joining the NCAA in 1994. They are now 7-3 in LSC openers under head coach Ronnie Hearne.
 
Tarleton got on the board first with a Wright layup after winning the opening tip-off, but the Pioneers kept it close early and even took a slim 9-8 lead at the 17:32 mark.
 
Wright put the TexAnns back on top by converting on a 3-point play at the 16:54. After sinking the free throw, Tarleton led 11-9 and then went on to outscore the Pioneers 15-5 over the next eight minutes.
 
After a TWU 3-point play pulled the Pioneers' deficit to single digits with 8:17 to play, the TexAnns scored seven straight on layups by Wright and Erin Sims as well as a 3-ball from Peyton Adamson to push their lead to the biggest of the day at 33-17 with 6:07 left.
 
Texas Woman's came out of a timeout at 6:03 and struck for a 15-2 run over the rest of the half. The only TexAnn points over that stretch came on a Karli Moore jumper at the 4:05 mark.
 
Tarleton went into halftime holding just a 35-32 lead.
 
When the game began again, Texas Woman's pulled within two just one minute into play but the TexAnns fired right back with back-to-back layups from Wright and Lowrance to lead by six.
 
The lead would dissolve again, however, when TWU connected for four straight points following a Brianna Bledsoe 3-ball to make it a one-point game at 15:35.
 
On the ensuing possession, Wright went to the free throw line and connected for both points which started a 10-0 TexAnn run over the next 4:07. The run was capped off by an Adamson 3-pointer from right in front of the Tarleton bench to force a Pioneer timeout.
 
Out of the timeout, Tarleton continued the onslaught by scoring nine more unanswered points to lead 62-42 with 9:17 left in the contest.
 
Texas Woman's finally got on the board again with a free throw at the 9:04 mark. The Pioneers were held scoreless for 6:31, going 0-5 from the floor and 0-5 from the free throw line with three turnovers over that stretch.
 
The Pioneers clawed back, however, with a 16-6 run over the next six minutes to bring the score to 68-58 with just over three minutes to play.
 
That was as close as they would get, however, as Tarleton maintained its double-figure lead the rest of the way.
 
In addition to Wright's 22, Adamson scored 13 while Shanae Lowrance cracked the double-figure mark for the first time this season with 11. Lowrance also had seven rebounds.
 
Tarleton shot better from the floor (47 percent, 28-60) than the free throw line (46 percent, 11-24). Texas Woman's also struggled from the free throw line shooting just 45 percent (9-20) and 39 percent (23-59) from the floor.
 
With this win, Hearne is now one win shy of 175 for his career at Tarleton. He and the TexAnns will be on the road again Wednesday at Angelo State for a 5:30 p.m. game against the Rambelles. The Tarleton men's game will follow immediately after.