Wild Posts a Career High to Lead Lady Buffs Past TWU 

West+Texas+A%26Ms+Maddison+Wild+shoots+the+ball+over+a+Texas+Womens+University+defender+during+the+game+on+Feb.+4+in+the+First+United+Bank+Center+in+Canyon.

Nick Alvarado

West Texas A&M’s Maddison Wild shoots the ball over a Texas Women’s University defender during the game on Feb. 4 in the First United Bank Center in Canyon.

Nick Alvarado, Former Editor for The Prairie

Maddison Wild went wild for the Lady Buffs.

The 6-foot-2 senior center posted a career high 23 points as the West Texas A&M women’s basketball team returned home and earned another win in convincing fashion, 80-55, and stretched the winning streak to four games.

“[It was a] really good win,” West Texas A&M head women’s coach Kristen Mattio said. “I thought everyone was contributing tonight. Defensively, I thought we set the tone. From the offensive end, a little slow early on but once we got it going, we really did a good job.”

Wild kick-started the game with a deuce down low and netting a basket with a foul being drawn. Her free throw attempt was drained for the old-fashion three-point play.

The Lady Pioneers had the Lady Buffs number early on. Lousiana-Lafayette transfer Alexis Nezianya had a respose for a Wild basket within the first three mintutes of the game.

With a timeout called with 4:47 left in the first, the Lady Buffs turned their gameplay up.

Freshman guard and Amarillo native Lexi Hightower was found from mid-range with a jumper. Junior forward Madison Parker, who basketed 11 points in the winning effort, was found from the same distance with her basket.

After a Nezianya basket, Alie Decker drained back-to-back jumpers as the Lady Buffs led 17-9 after one quarter of play.

The dominance of the Lady Buffs contined with the start of the second quarter.

Parker was found down low for the easy deuce to open up the scoring in the new quarter. After trading baskets with TWU, Wild was found from long-range, hitting her first three of the game from the top of they key.

With the ensuing possession, the Lady Buffs slowed down the tempo and eventually found Hightower for the layup and forced the Lady Pioneers to take a timeout with 6:11 left in the quarter.

TWU tried to keep up with WT but recorded some good possessions. Kenesha Saygo hit a deuce down low off the offensive rebound. Grace Mitchell showed her aggreessiveness with a bucket down in the low post.

With a new half came more momentum for the Lady Buffs, as they opened the second half with a 10-0 run and extended the lead to 44-19.

“Basketball is a game of runs,”Wild said. “Obviously, you want to be on the team that’s having that run.”

With the physicality of the Lady Pioneers showing with fouls, the Lady Buffs eventually played on.

Hightower hit a three from the right wing, along with draining a basket from the free-throw line. WT wrapped up the third quarter with a 6-0 run courtesy of a Wild netted free-throw attempts, a Hightower layup and a Sydney Walton pair of free-throws.

In a scoring-bunched fourth quarter, TWU opened up with a 8-2 run in the first two minutes of action.

Parker was found down low with a foul called as the basket was good. The free-throw following the deuce would fall.

With a back-and-fourth tussle throughout the quarter, the Lady Buffs finished their scoring with a 6-2 run, all from made free-throw attemps, and earning their 10th victory in Lone Star Conference play.

“[There is] Good focus and playing good basketball right now,” Mattio said. “We’re doing a better job executing on the offensive end. The goal is to continue to get better through winning.” If we can do that, we will be playing our best basketball late and that’s what we want to do.”

“A couple of weeks ago, we just game together as a team and talked about everything that we needed to do to achieve all the goals that we set,” Wild said. “Everyone toned in on their detail with their role of the team. That’s what we’re doing, fighting for each other and achieve all those goals.”

Alongside Wild, Hightower chipped in 18 points. Parker finished with 11 points on the day. Watson tallied up eight points. Decker contributed with six points.

The Lady Buffs return to action on Feb. 9 as they face Cameron starting at 5:30 p.m. in the First United Bank Center as they continue their three-game home stretch.