ALLEN – Tarleton knew when they entered the Lone Star Conference tournament that they had to win the championship to advance to the NCAA tournament. Now the TexAnns are one win away from achieving their goal after defeating Texas A&M-Kingsville 60-47 to advance to the LSC finals.

Tarleton will take on Angelo State, who they split the regular season series with, on Sunday, March 5 at 1 p.m. at the Allen Event Center. The TexAnns are making their third trip to the LSC tournament championship game and first since 2014. The TexAnns won their only LSC tournament title in 2012.

After A&M-Kingsville upset the No. 1 seed Eastern New Mexico, Tarleton wasted no time in getting ahead and not letting the Javelinas hang around as they held the lead for 39:14 of the 40 minutes of play. The TexAnns sprinted out of the gates on an 11-0 run after the Javelinas scored the game's first points. Tiara Tatum drained a pair of 3-pointers during the run and finished with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Tarleton led 18-5 after the first quarter where they shot 44 percent from the floor and held A&M-Kingsville to 17 percent shooting and forced the Javelinas into 10 turnovers that turned into 12 TexAnn points.
The Javelinas outscored the TexAnns 33-24 over the second and third quarters, but the TexAnns weren't fazed by the comeback attempt. After maintaining a double-digit lead for most of the first half, A&M-Kingsville went on an 11-2 run during the third quarter to cut Tarleton's lead to 40-38 before Ikpeaku Iwobi's offensive board and put-back layup gave the TexAnns a 42-38 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

Iwobi and Bailey Wipff, both senior leaders for the TexAnns, made sure their careers weren't quite over as they took control at the start of the fourth to bump the margin back to double figures. Wipff drilled a 3-pointer and Iwobi followed with an and-1 layup to make it 48-38. Iwobi recorded her 23^rd career double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Wipff added eight points and a game-high three steals.

Once the seniors gave the TexAnns a comfortable lead, they turned to their leading scorer in Mackenzie Hailey to punch their ticket to the title game. Hailey scored six straight points on another and-1 layup and on the next possession the sophomore drained a 3-pointer at the top of the key for a game-high 14-point lead at 54-40 with 4:50 to go. Hailey finished with a game-best 15 points along with eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

Kylie Collins had four points and three assists and played a key role in helping the TexAnns limit their turnovers as the freshman point guard had zero turnovers in 23 minutes and the team only had nine in the game.

Tarleton had nine bench points in the game, led by Travanti Downes (4), Baylee Peck (3) and Shelby Mankins (2).