Box Score - Photo Gallery

STEPHENVILLE – In the final game of the 2012 calendar year, Tarleton earned its seventh victory of the season with a 70-49 win over Wayland Baptist (8-7, 0-1) Saturday night.
 
This win marked the first time Tarleton (7-2, 3-0) has defeated Wayland Baptist in a regular season game since 1991 and just the third time in 15 all-time meetings. This was the first meeting between these teams in the regular season since Tarleton joined the NCAA in 1994.
 
Tarleton started on fire, hitting their first five shots from the floor – and one from the free throw line – to jump out to a quick 11-2 lead.
 
With 16:34 on the clock, however, Wayland Baptist tipped in an offensive rebound to start a 14-4 Flying Queen run over the next 8:11 to take the lead from Tarleton at 16-15 with 8:23 left in the clock.
 
Shanae Lowrance answered the call for Tarleton 18 seconds later with a layup to put Tarleton back on top at 17-16. Wayland Baptist immediately answered with two free throws to go back on top.
 
On the ensuing TexAnn possession, Brianna Bledsoe drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put Tarleton up by a pair at 20-18. Following a defensive rebound by Lowrance, Tarleton's Erin Sims converted on the offensive end for two points and a 22-18 lead with 5:53 left in the half.
 
After WBU cut the TexAnn lead to just two, Bledsoe hit another layup to start a 5-0 TexAnn push to put Tarleton up 27-20 with 1:11 left. The Flying Queens scored the last bucket of the half – an offensive putback with 47 seconds left – to put the Tarleton lead at 27-22 entering the break.
 
Bledsoe (8) and Lowrance (6) were the top scorers in the first half. Lowrance also managed five rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
 
After WBU pulled within four over the first 2:25 of the second half, Tarleton answered with an 8-0 run over the next 4:44. Tarleton held Wayland Baptist to just one field goal for 7:51 in the second half while pushing their lead to 50-35 with less than 10 minutes left.
 
Wayland Baptist cut the lead to 11 with a pair of free throws at 9:28, but Kiara Wright connected for a layup to start a 9-0 TexAnn run – five of the points from Wright – to give Tarleton a 59-39 lead with 5:24 left.
 
Despite being limited to just five points and three rebounds in eight minutes of action in the first half, Wright dominated the second half of play to lead the TexAnns with 16 points and 15 rebounds. This is Wright's 20^th career double-double and the seventh of this season.
 
With her 15 rebounds, she has also moved up two places – passing Becky Bates and Helena Smith - on the Tarleton all-time list and is now 13^th all-time in total rebounds with 558 for her career. She is now 10 rebounds shy of passing Tina Tibbs for 12^th place all-time.
 
Lowrance added 12 points for the TexAnns while Bledsoe (11) and Peyton Adamson (10) also cracked double figures. This is the second straight double-figure effort for Lowrance, the third straight for Bledsoe while Adamson has topped double-figures in every game this season.
 
Tarleton will kick-off 2013 by returning the Lone Star Conference action when they host Texas A&M-Kingsville Jan. 2 at 6 p.m. in Wisdom Gym.