After a rare week-long break, women’s basketball returned to the court on Feb. 4 to take on Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas.
The first half was a major battle between the two teams, with TWU starting the tally before WT took over the lead off of two baskets from Joni Unruh. The Lady Buffs grabbed an 8-3 lead, but it would again be cut into by TWU with a jumper. TWU would soon tie for the lead and the teams swapped back and forth. However, after an 11-2 run, WT had an 32-21 lead at the break.
The second half would see a change of momentum as the Pioneers slowly ate into the WT lead. The Lady Buffs continued to fight back, but when the Pioneers went on a 15-2 run, TWU finally pulled ahead 39-38. Kenisha Harris would be WT’s star as she made a bucket and then two free throws to get WT’s lead back, up by three points.The Lady Buffs held the lead again until the 8:43 mark, falling behind by one point. The following minutes would see WT pull away again with TWU once again eating into their lead. The Lady Buffs only lost the lead one more time in the game as TWU pulled ahead for the third time with a 51-50 lead.
The final minutes would see WT on top as the team grabbed the momentum again, working their way to a 63-54 lead. In the final 1:30, the Lady Buffs put the Pioneers out of their misery by going on a 3-2 run to end the game at 66-55.
Kenisha Harris came close to a career-tying high with 25 points. The sophomore also had 10 rebounds to give her the first double-double of her career. Unruh added to her steals total by recording four in Denton. The team brought their shooting percentage up to 42 percent from the field after a rough start and went 77 percent from the charity stripe.
“I thought that we battled really hard and that it was a typical Lone Star Conference road game,” Head coach Krista Gerlich said. “I thought that we played pretty well the first half, as far as kind of controlling the game, but of course we had the general issues of basketball. They got back in it the second half and we really battled through and held on for the win.”
The win is WT’s third straight and takes their season record to 12-8 overall with 10-4 in the Lone Star Conference. They return to the First United Bank Center on Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. against Abilene Christian.
