Box Score ALLEN – A historic performance by Kiara Wright lifted Tarleton over Incarnate Word 74-56 in the Lone Star Conference Tournament quarterfinals Thursday night.
 
With the win, Tarleton moves into the semifinal round where they will face-off with LSC regular season co-champions Midwestern State at 6 p.m. Friday from the Allen Event Center while Incarnate Word, the No. 10 seed in the South Central region, will return home and await their fate for the NCAA regional tournament.
 
Wright recorded her second 30-point performance of the season, her second 20-20 performance, the first 30-20 performance in Tarleton's NCAA history and became just the fourth player in Tarleton history to score 1,000 career points and grab 800 career rebounds.
 
“Honestly I don't pay attention to any of that,” said Wright. “My mentality is to get the ball and when I have the ball to go score. I got a lot of single coverage tonight and Coach (Ronnie Hearne) always says if there is one girl guarding you, go score.”
 
“Kiara is very humble,” said Hearne. “She doesn't pay any attention when she gets Player of the Week and things like that. She just wants to help the team win. I think the play tonight that really tells you what type of player she is came when she dove on the floor late in the game and had a presence of mind to call a timeout. She's about the team.”
 
Wright led the team with 30 points and 20 rebounds on 10-16 shooting from the floor.
 
“Let's give Kiara Wright a lot of credit,” said Incarnate Word head coach Angela Lawson. “She averages a double-double and she certainly did that tonight.”
 
Wright got the scoring started with an old-fashioned three-point play at the 18:20 mark of the first half. The Wright three points was the first of five unanswered points and the start of a 15-6 run over the first 8:31 of the game.
 
With Tarleton leading by nine with 11:29 left in the opening half, Incarnate Word hit back-to-back field goals to cut the TexAnn lead down to five.
 
After a three-minute scoreless stretch, Wright and Peyton Adamson scored three points each for six unanswered to push the Tarleton lead back to double figures at 20-10 with 7:30 left in the opening half.
 
Incarnate Word clawed back to within six points at 23-17, but Wright answered right back for Tarleton by going 2-2 at the charity stripe to start a 9-2 TexAnn run over the final 4:34 to give Tarleton a game-high 14-point lead at the break.
 
Wright went into halftime having already amassed her nation-leading 22^nd double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds over the opening 20 minutes of play.
 
Tarleton pushed its lead to 15 over the first three minutes of the second half before UIW answered with a 19-9 run over the next seven minutes to make things interesting at 49-44.
 
Raven McGrath answered for Tarleton by driving baseline and banking in a layup against a double team to push the lead back to seven and start a 13-4 run to give the TexAnns a commanding 14-point lead with just 3:17 left.
 
Tarleton coasted over the final three minutes, never leading by less than 11 the rest of the way.
 
Cheyenne Berry and Adamson also cracked double figures for Tarleton while Morgan Ashmore added nine of her own. Brianna Bledsoe (5), McGrath (2) and Erin Sims (2) were the only other TexAnns to score.
 
Tarleton will advance to play the Mustangs Friday night in a semifinal match at the Allen Event Center.
 
“We're excited to play them again,” said Adamson. “We've played them twice and they're a great team, but you want to play great teams this time of year. We're looking forward to the opportunity to get another crack at them.”