STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton TexAnn Basketball team dropped its first game of the regular season Wednesday night with a 70-57 loss to the No. 7-ranked team in NAIA Our Lady of the Lake.
 
Despite a 19-point performance from the defending LSC Offensive Player of the Week, Bailey Wipff, and the second straight double-double from Ikpeaku Iwobi, Tarleton was held to just 32 percent for the game, which included a 28-percent mark from beyond the arc.
 
Wipff was the only TexAnn to hit from beyond arc as the junior from Lubbock went 5-7 from deep and the rest of the team went a combined 0-11. Tarleton also committed 20 turnovers, which is the first time in the young season the TexAnns have failed to force more turnovers than they have committed.
 
The game got started with 12 straight points from Tarleton, which included the first eight points of the game courtesy of Wipff. The Saints answered right back, however, by cutting the Tarleton lead to five at the end of the opening quarter.
 
Tarleton opened the second quarter on a 10-4 run to extend the lead to 11, but the Saints battled back once again to pull within four points at halftime. OLLU eventually took its first lead of the game at the 7:18 mark of the third quarter. The TexAnns tied it up at 35-35 and took the lead back on a Travanti Downes free throw, but an 11-4 run over the next four minutes pushed OLLU's lead to six with 48 seconds left in the third quarter. Downes added one more free throw to send the game to the fourth with Tarleton down 41-46.
 
A Wipff three-pointer for the opening bucket of the final frame pulled Tarleton within two, but the Saints answered right back and maintained at least a five-point lead over the rest of the game.
 
Behind Wipff and Iwobi, who went for 14 points and 10 rebounds, Morgan Ashmore had eight points while Downes, Raven McGrath, and Averie Mack chipped in four each. Tiara Tatum and Meagan O'Dell added two points each to round out the scoring.
 
Tarleton will look to get back in the win column Saturday night with a 5 p.m. showdown with Texas Wesleyan in Wisdom Gym.