STEPHENVILLE - Tarleton returns from an 11-day Christmas break Saturday Dec. 29 when it hosts Wayland Baptist in the first regular season meeting in nearly a decade.

This is also the first time these schools have squared off in the regular season since Tarleton joined the NCAA. WBU came to Stephenville for an exhibition prior to last season and escaped with a 3-point victory.

In the ninth game of the 2012-13 season and the final game of the 2012 calendar year, the TexAnns look to extend their current winning streak to five.

Tarleton trails the all-time series against Wayland Baptist 2-12, including falling in the last four meetings. The TexAnns are 2-3 against WBU in Stephenville and, under head coach Ronnie Hearne, Tarleton is 8-1 in the first game following the Christmas holiday.

AT A GLANCE

Records: Tarleton TexAnns 6-2 (3-0 LSC), Wayland Baptist Flying Queens 8-6 (0-1 Sooner Athletic)

Video: The Tarleton TexAnn game can be seen through the Tarleton All-Access link on TarletonSports.com

Radio: KSTV 93.1 FM The Mighty 93 in Stephenville has the call for the TexAnns with Mike Young (play-by-play) on air. An online link to the audio feed can be found at TarletonSports.com.

Last Time Out

Tarleton got its revenge against Texas-Permian Basin as the TexAnns downed the Falcons 81-76 at Wisdom Gym in the final game before Christmas. Led by a career-high 24 points from Shanae Lowrance, Tarleton was 56 percent shooting from the floor while holding UTPB to just 48 percent. Peyton Adamson (16), Brianna Bledsoe (14) and Cheyenne Berry (10) also cracked double figures.

Bledsoe makes her mark

Over the past two games, Brianna Bledsoe has stepped into a much larger role with the TexAnns. Prior to this season, the junior guard had recorded no starts and averaged 3.9 points per game for her two-year career. In her junior season, however, she has now started six straight games and has averaged 15 points per contest in the last two games. After a career-high 16-point effort against ACU, she recorded 14 points against UTPB for the first back-to-back double-figure effort of her career. Also in the past two games, she has drawn the task of shutting down the opposing team's top defender.

Third guard's a charm

Tarleton started its third different point guard of the season Dec. 1 against Texas Woman's as Morgan Ashmore earned her first career start. The TexAnns are now a perfect 4-0 with Ashmore at the helm. She is 6th in the LSC in assists with 3.1 per contest and 2nd in the LSC in assist-turnover ratio at 1.7. Prior to this season, head coach Ronnie Hearne has only started five players at the point guard position in a nine-year period. This season, he has started three.

Conference's top 2 scorers

Tarleton comes into the game with the top two scorers in the Lone Star Conference for the third straight week. Peyton Adamson remains the conference scoring leader by averaging 17.1 points per contest. Kiara Wright is second in the LSC with 16.3 points per game.

Wright becoming one of Tarleton's best

Kiara Wright continues her climb up the Tarleton rebounding record list despite a foul-trouble effort in her last outing. She now leads the LSC in rebounding this season at 12.8 boards per game. She is rapidly climbing up the indivdual rebounding lists. Her 367 career defensive rebounds have her currently in fourth place all-time while her 176 offensive boards are good for 10th place all-time, so far. After seven games, she has 102 rebounds to give her 543 for her Tarleton career and is now 2 rebounds shy of passing Becky Bates for 14th and 4 boards shy of passing Helena Smith for 13th on the all-time TexAnn rebounding list.

Wright has 19 career double-doubles in regular season and postseason contests and had scored 20 points five times.

WBU in the NAIA

Wayland Baptist has been a force to be reckoned with over the past 30 years in the NAIA. The Flying Queens has been to the NAIA National Tournament 20 times since the 1982-83 season with the last trip coming in 2009 when they bowed out in the first round to Freed-Hardeman.

Last Time Out for the Flying Queens

Trailing at halftime against Heartland member McMurry, Wayland Baptist rode a 39-point second half to pull off the comeback victory against the Warhawks in Plainview 64-50. Angeleigh Davis and Rochelle Norris each cracked double-figures with 13 and 10, respectively, while the other seven members of the team who played each recorded at least four points.

Looking Ahead for Tarleton

The TexAnns will return to LSC action Jan. 2, 2013 when they host Texas A&M-Kingsville at 6 p.m.