ALLEN – Tarleton State bowed out of the LSC Championship Tournament in the quarterfinal round Thursday night following a 70-62 loss to Texas Woman's at the Allen Event Center.
 
"Knowing this could be the last game (for seniors Karli Moore and Kathy Thomas) is what hurts the most and it's like watching your own kids hurt," said first-year head coach Misty Wilson. "The difference in the game was that they made three more shots than we did. The rebounds were the same. The turnovers were the same. The only thing was they made three more shots. I felt like we got open looks and pretty shots, they just didn't go in.
 
The TexAnns entered the tournament as the No. 8 team in the NCAA South Central regional rankings and are one of a few 'bubble' teams over the region's three conferences aiming for the final at-large bid into the NCAA national playoffs.
 
"The season isn't over until they tell us we didn't make the tournament," said Moore. "We'll keep practicing and preparing like we're in the tournament. I love my team and hopefully we get to keep playing."
 
"When you're a 'bubble' team, this is what it's about," said Wilson. "We've been in this position before and we'll continue to work and prepare, like Karli said, until they tell us we can't anymore. I feel like when you win 17 games against a tough schedule like ours it should be enough to get you in, but we'll see."
 
Ikpeaku Iwobi was a dominant force for the TexAnns in the opening half as the sophomore from Houston accounted for exactly half of the team's first-half scoring with 11 points and nine rebounds, including the first four Tarleton points of the game.
 
Iwobi's first four points kept the Pioneers from distancing themselves early, despite Texas Woman's leading by as many as six on two different occasions over the first eight minutes of the game.
 
At the 12:00 mark, Breanna Fuller connected on a layup to keep TWU's lead from going and started a 6-0 TexAnn surge to even things up at 12-12. Three minutes later, Meagan O'Dell and Texas Woman's banged in back-to-back triples to keep things tied before Iwobi connected from long range to put Tarleton on top for the next 1:30 before TWU tied it up at 18-18.
 
Neither team led by more than one point over the next five minutes before Texas Woman's struck for seven unanswered points in the final four minutes of the half to take a 28-22 lead into halftime.
 
Out of the break, Tarleton kicked things into high gear with a 10-0 run that turned a six-point deficit into a four-point lead with 15 minutes left in the game. Kathy Thomas got the surge under way with her 100^th career 3-pointer and added four more of the next 10 – to go along with a triple from Bailey Wipff – to put Tarleton up 32-28.
 
From there, Texas Woman's pulled back to within one possession and the teams traded the lead over the next 11 minutes with neither side leading by more than a basket. The Pioneers pushed the lead to five with 3:34 in the game to start a 14-6 run and take a half-high 11-point lead with 15 seconds left.
 
Tarleton got an old-fashioned 3-point play from Morgan Ashmore in the final seconds to bring the game to its final score.
 
Iwobi finished the game with her 11^th career double-double – and ninth this season – with 17 points and 11 rebounds, each of which led the team. Thomas scored 11 points while Travanti Downes scored a career-high 10 points off the bench to round out the double-figure scoring efforts for Tarleton.
 
Ashmore scored six while Breanna Fuller and Karli Moore each scored four points. Wipff and O'Dell each scored three while Raven McGrath and Nyariak Duop rounded out the scoring with two points each.
 
As a team, Tarleton shot 39 percent from the floor, including 31 percent from downtown, and 72 percent from the charity stripe. The game was tied 12 times and saw 12 lead changes in the seesaw affair.
 
Following the loss, the TexAnns will return home to Stephenville to await their fate in the race for an invitation to the NCAA South Central regional tournament. The final 64 teams will be decided Sunday night in a selection show at 9 p.m. CST on NCAA.com.