STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton women's basketball led from start to finish in an 84-70 win over Western New Mexico on Saturday in Wisdom Gym.
Â
The TexAnns improve to 10-10 on the year and 9-5 in the Lone Star Conference.
Mackenzie Hailey posted her 12
th double-double of the season with 16 points and 16 rebounds with a career-high five assists to lead the TexAnns on both ends of the court.
Â
The TexAnns got off to a quick 9-0 start with points from
Bailey Wipff,
Ikpeaku Iwobi and Hailey. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Wipff and Hailey gave the TexAnns a double-digit lead in the first quarter at 19-8 in the first five minutes of the game. Wipff finished with 15 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line and added three assists.
Â
Western New Mexico went on an 11-0 run to cut the first quarter lead to 23-19. The TexAnns responded with another early run to open the second quarter, this time a 14-0 spurt to pad the lead to 39-21.
Shelby Mankins gave Tarleton a 20-point first-half lead at 43-23 and the TexAnns led 43-25 at the break. Tarleton shot a blistering 57 percent in the first half while WNMU connected on 40 percent of its shots.
Â
Iwobi scored the first six points in the third quarter for Tarleton and finished the game with 16 points to match Hailey for the team lead.
Baylee Peck drilled a 3-pointer on a kick-out pass from Hailey followed by a pair of Iwobi free throws for Tarleton's biggest lead of the game 63-40 with 1:30 to go in the third quarter.
Â
Tarleton finished the game shooting 50 percent from the floor compared to WNMU's 49 percent, improving to 8-0 on the year when they shoot a high percent than the opponent.
Â
The TexAnn played a big part in the win, scoring a combined 33 points between Wipff, Tatum, Peck and
Kylie Collins. Collins had a team-high five assists and
Tiara Tatum scored nine points with three assists.
Â
The TexAnns got 24 points from the bench, led by
Travanti Downes and
Reann Hall each posting seven points. Hall added five rebounds in 12 minutes of action. Peck scored five points while
Shelby Drews had three points and Mankins recorded two points.
Â
Tarleton will host Texas A&M-Kingsville on Thursday, Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m.