PITTSBURG, Kan. – Tarleton Women’s Basketball used a big third quarter to erase an eight-point halftime deficit and defeat perennial MIAA power Pittsburg State 83-76 on the road Wednesday afternoon.
It was the first road game for Tarleton, who bounced back from its first loss of the year Saturday to improve to 5-1 on the young season.
“It’s never easy to win on the road and we knew we would have our hands full with this team, who by the way beat Kansas earlier this year. We knew we would have to execute really, really well. I don’t know that we did that in the first half, but we did in the second,” said head coach Misty Wilson.
Mackenzie Hailey got the scoring started with four unanswered points in the opening minute and a half, but Pitt State would ultimately edge out the Texans in a close, high-scoring first quarter 24-21. The Gorillas kept their momentum in the second quarter and ended the opening half on a 17-9 run in the final eight minutes to send Tarleton into halftime trailing 46-38.
Out of the break, the Texans caught fire.
Kylie Collins drilled a three-ball on the opening possession of the second half and, after a Lucy Benson steal, Hailey added another bucket for a quick 5-0 Tarleton surge to bring the Texans within three at 46-43.
Pitt State pulled away by as many as nine, but Tarleton turned the game upside down with a 13-0 run in the middle of the quarter. Hailey and Benson started the run with a layup and an old-fashioned three-point play, respectively. Then Alexa Hoy and Kylie Collins went back-to-back from downtown to give the Texans a 63-61 lead. Hoy finished off the 13-0 stretch with a coast-to-coast steal and layup for a 65-61 lead with 16 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Gorillas pulled as close as two points with 3:05 left in the game, but an offensive rebound by Kaitlyn Guillory set up a second-chance bucket from Kandyn Faurie to extend the Tarleton lead back to two possessions. Hailey scored Tarleton’s final four points of the game to seal the win.
Tarleton had five different Texans score double figures, led by Hailey’s first 20-point performance of the season. The senior from Burleson scored her 20 points on a .583 shooting percentage to go along with eight rebounds.
Hoy (17), Benson (15), and Collins (12) combined for 44 points in the starting lineup while Marissa Escamilla gave Tarleton 10 points off the bench. Faurie scored nine to round out the scoring for Tarleton, who shot .557 from the field as a team.
Tarleton will return to Lone Star Conference play next Thursday night with a road trip to San Angelo for a 5:30 p.m. showdown with the Rambelles of Angelo State at the Junell Center.
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