Box Score CANYON – A first-half 3-point barrage from No. 7 West Texas A&M (14-1, 5-0) was too much for the No. 17 Tarleton TexAnns (13-3, 4-2) to overcome, despite a valiant second-half effort Wednesday night at the First United Bank Center.
 
Tarleton opened the game on a 6-2 run after a layup from Brianna Bledsoe and back-to-back buckets from Kiara Wright got the TexAnns on the board. After a WT score, Tarleton extended the lead to five with a 3-pointer from Bledsoe.
 
At the 16:09 point, however, West Texas' 3-point barrage began.
 
After WT's first 3-pointer of the night cut the TexAnn lead to two, the teams stayed within two points of each other over the next three minutes with the lead tying once and changing hands twice.
 
The second 3-pointer of the night for the Lady Buffs gave WT the lead at 12-11 with 14:25 left and started a 39-15 run to send Tarleton into the halftime break trailing 51-26. This marks the fourth time this season Tarleton has trailed at halftime. They are 1-3 in those games with the lone win coming at Midwestern State.
 
Tarleton shot just 36 percent (9-25) from the floor, 17 percent (1-6) from downtown and 70 percent (7-10) from the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes while WT was 52 percent (17-33) from the floor, 67 percent (10-15) from beyond the arc and 70 percent (7-10) from the charity stripe.
 
The TexAnns also turned the ball over 11 times in the first half compared to just four for the Lady Buffs.
 
After trailing by as many as 35 at the 17:05 mark of the second half, Tarleton got a layup from Wright, five straight points from Kathy Thomas, six unanswered points from Karli Moore and finally a layup from Morgan Ashmore to force a West Texas A&M timeout at 64-40.
 
Out of the break, Thomas added two more to bring the Tarleton deficit to 22 – the lowest deficit since the 1:54 mark of the first half – heading into the 12-minute media timeout. Wright added a layup immediately out of the break to make the deficit 64-44.
 
Tarleton continued its run and pulled it to as little as 15 with five minutes left to play. For a 10:14 run from 17:21 to 7:07, Tarleton outscored the Lady Buffs 29-9 to bring the score to 70-55 in the waning minutes. They could get no closer, however, as WT ended the game on a 12-5 push to bring the contest to its final score.
 
The TexAnns responded to shoot 54 percent from the floor and 75 percent from downtown in the second half while holding the Lady Buffs to 35 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
 
This is the second straight loss for the TexAnns and just the sixth two-game losing skid for Tarleton since 2010.
 
Wright led the team with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Bledsoe and Thomas each had 10. Ashmore scored seven while Moore added six off the bench. Erin Sims (4), Ikpeaku Iwobi (3), Meagan O'Dell (3) and Raven McGrath (2) rounded out the scoring for Tarleton.
 
The TexAnns committed 21 turnovers which led to a 30-15 point advantage off turnovers for WT and were outrebounded 36-33, including 16-10 on the offensive boards which led to a 12-4 advantage for WT in second chance points.
 
Tarleton returns home this weekend to host Eastern New Mexico Saturday at 5 p.m.