The Lady Buffs faced the Eastern New Mexico Zias twice in four days during this week’s Rival week in the Lone Star Conference. While the Lady Buffs dominated the Zias at home in the first match-up, winning 77-45 on Jan 18, the Zias would prevail at their home court on Jan 21. The Zias’ win over the Lady Buffs would be their first on home court since Feb. 17, 2003.
The score board was busy from the beginning, as the Zias put two on the board only 16 seconds into the game. The Lady Buffs were quick to rebound however, tying up the score only 17 seconds later.
The first half was full of back-and-forth action with the Lady Buffs finally taking command of the lead with 5:45 left in the half. The Lady Buffs only allowed the Zias to score three more times in the half, sending the teams to the locker room for the break with WT leading 36-32, thanks to a two-pointer by Ashley Leven with 27 seconds left.The Zias once again got the scoring started when the teams returned for the second half with a three-point shot 25 seconds in. The Lady Buffs retaliated, only allowing the Zias to score once more in the next five minutes while putting nine points on the board.
It wouldn’t be until the eighth minute that the Zias would pull within one point of WT, heating things up again. Kenisha Harris put the Lady Buffs up by two when she made two free throws but it wouldn’t deter the Zias and they would take the lead with 8:44 left off of two successful free throws. Ashley Leven regained the lead for WT a minute later. The team grabbed a five-point lead with a two-pointer by Casey Land and successful free throws by Joni Unruh and Kenisha Harris.
The Zias would make a late charge to take the lead with 2:31 left in the game. The last few minutes of the game were nail-biting with the score sitting at 69-63 in favor of the Zias with 36 seconds left. However, Ariel Roberton helped pull the Lady Buffs within three points with 20 seconds on the clock. Joni Unruh put the team within a point off of two successful free throws but in the end, the Zias prevailed to win the second match-up of the week, 71-68.
“Obviously I was disappointed that we didn’t win the ball game but we knew that it was going to be a very difficult task, even after beating them pretty handedly on Wednesday,” Head Coach Krista Gerlich said. “I thought that our effort was there, I just thought that we really didn’t finish our shots and didn’t concentrate at the free throw line and just didn’t get the job done.”
Kenisha Harris led WT in points with 21 in 35 minutes of playing and Joni Unruh tied Natasha Taylor for fifth-place all-time in school history, recording her 264th steal. The loss takes the Lady Buffs’ overall season record to 9-8 with an LSC conference record of 7-4.
The Lady Buffs return home to the First United Bank Center on Jan 26 at 6 p.m. to take on University of the Incarnate Word.
