Ladyjacks Pull Away Late From Texans in Home Win

Saturday, February 3

Nacogdoches, TX

2:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

15-7,9-2WAC

Tarleton State University

6-14,3-8WAC

Tarleton St.

SFA

Ladyjacks Pull Away Late From Texans in Home Win

2/3/2024 5:41:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Peter Trainor, Student Assistant for Strategic Communications

NACOGDOCHES, Texas. - The Stephen F. Austin women's basketball team (15-7, 9-2) continued their strong play both in conference and at home as they were claimed both their ninth home and conference win with a commanding 72-63 win over the visiting Tarleton Texans (6-14, 3-8).

The Ladyjacks returned home to the Sawmill for the first time in three weeks looking to string together their second consecutive win and continue their dominant play on their home court as they entered the afternoon sporting an 8-2 home record on the season.

The first quarter saw Zoe Nelson, fresh off a 12-rebound performance against Utah Valley, start the scoring for both sides as she would knock down a jumper off an assist from Kurstyn Harden 20 seconds into the first to give SFA an early 2-0 lead. Over the course of the next two minutes, the two schools exchanged baskets which saw Lydia Cooke-Wiggins and Destini Lombard make layups for the Ladyjacks to offset jumpers from Tarleton and with three minutes gone in the first quarter, the game was knotted up at six apiece. Kurstyn Harden would continue her strong free-throw shooting as she would drain one to push SFA back ahead with a slim 7-6 lead, to which Tarleton responded with a free-throw of their own to tie the game back at seven. Kurstyn Harden and Zoe Nelson would make the next two baskets for SFA as the Ladyjacks were able to push their lead to 11-7 halfway through the opening quarter. However, the next two minutes would be all Tarleton as they would find their groove in a hurry and go on a 11-0 scoring run to suddenly find themselves ahead 18-11 with two minutes remaining. Avery VanSickle would put an end to the scoring run for Tarleton as she would carry over her strong three-point shooting from the Utah Valley win with her first triple of the game to cut the Texans lead down to 18-14. However, Karyn Sanford would end the quarter on a high note for Tarleton as she would respond to VanSickle's three with one of her own and Tarleton closed out the first quarter leading 21-14.

Destini Lombard would make a driving layup to open up scoring for the second quarter and bring SFA to within five of Tarleton at 21-16. The following SFA possession saw Kurstyn Harden knock down a jumper off a pass from Lombard and SFA inched closer to the Texans at 21-18. After a Faith Acker free-throw restored Tarleton's three-point lead, Destini Lombard drove into the paint and banked home a layup through contact, was able to draw the foul, and drain the free-throw to complete the three-point play and bring SFA to within a single point of Tarleton at 22-21. After a mini 3-0 scoring run by Tarleton gave them a four-point lead, SFA responded with a 6-0 scoring run thaw saw Kyla Deck score her first points of the contest, which was followed by consecutive baskets from Destini Lombard and Kurstyn Harden to tie the game up at 27 all. Over the next two minutes the two schools exchanged baskets almost evenly, which was highlighted by a layup from Zoe Nelson and a jumper from Destini Lombard who continued her dominant quarter with her fourth basket of the quarter to keep the score close with Tarleton holding a slim 32-31 lead with two minutes remaining. The final two minutes saw both teams get a multitude of free-throw opportunities as Kurstyn Harden would make three free-throws and Lydia Cooke-Wiggins would make two to nearly offset Tarleton's scoring and keep SFA trailing by only a point at 37-36 as both teams headed into the locker rooms for halftime.

The second half saw Destini Lombard carry over her absurd scoring in the second quarter as she came out of the locker room determined to give SFA the lead as she scored the first three points of the second half for SFA to help spark a 7-2 scoring run by the Ladyjacks over the first five minutes of the third quarter. The scoring run, in addition to Lombard's points, saw Kurstyn Harden and Lydia Cooke-Wiggins continue their strong games as both made layups to give SFA a 43-39 lead halfway into the third. However, Tarleton would not be trailing long as Jakoriah Long would hit a pair of free-throws, which was followed by Elise Turrubiates knocking down a jumper for the Texans to once again tie the score up as both teams were even at 43 points each. The remainder of the quarter saw a solid defensive effort from both teams as points were hard to come by, however, Trinity Moore got her scoring started for the afternoon when she followed up a Kyla Deck free-throw with an and-one play of her own to give SFA a 47-43 lead with two minutes remaining. After a Tarleton layup cut the SFA lead down to two, Trinity Moore would finish off her strong end to the quarter with a pair of free-throws with a little over a minute left to close out scoring for the third and give SFA a 49-45 lead heading into the final quarter.

Kurstyn Harden opened up the fourth quarter with a scoring spurt that saw her rattle off the first four points for SFA to help offset a pair of baskets from Tarleton and maintain SFA's four-point lead at 53-49 three minutes into the fourth. Tyler McCliment-Call got her scoring started for the afternoon as she would drain a three-pointer for SFA off a pass from Lydia Cooke-Wiggins to extend SFA's lead to seven points at 56-49, which was promptly followed by another Kurstyn Harden layup and SFA found themselves with the largest lead of the game to that point at 58-49 with just over five minutes remaining in the fourth. After a Texans basket closed the lead to seven points, Kyla Deck gave SFA their first double-digit lead of the game as she would splash a shot from downtown to extend the Ladyjacks lead to 61-51 halfway through the fourth. The next three minutes saw both schools exchanging baskets almost evenly as Trinity Moore would score four points, and Kurstyn Harden would hit the 20-point mark with a driving layup to fend off rally attempts from Tarleton and keep the 'Jacks in the lead at 67-60 with two minutes remaining. Kyla Deck and Kurstyn Harden would make back-to-back baskets for SFA to kill any chance of a Tarleton rally as SFA led 71-60 with 20 seconds left. After an Elise Turrubiates layup brought Tarleton to within nine, Destini Lombard iced the win for the Ladyjacks with one more layup and gave SFA their ninth home win of the season as they defeated Tarleton 73-62 in this one.

Kurstyn Harden continues her dominant season offensively for SFA as she was enforcing her will on both ends of the court for SFA today. Harden led the team with 22 points, and has now scored double-digit points in nine of her last ten games, while also pulling down a team-high eight rebounds and tying for the team lead in blocks with two. Destini Lombard stuffed the stat sheet today as she finished with 16 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out a team-leading seven assists, and added on two steals and a block on defense for good measure. Trinity Moore experienced a strong day of shooting from the charity stripe as she went a perfect 5/5 from the foul line to finish with nine points, two rebounds, one assist, and tied with Harden for the team-lead in blocks with two. Kyla Deck and Lydia Cooke-Wiggins formed a dynamic duo for SFA today as they combined for 16 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and one steal against the Texans. Tyler McCliment-Call was a ball-hawk on defense for SFA today as she led the defensive effort with three steals.

The Ladyjacks experienced their second straight game of strong shooting as they finished over 40% from the field for their second consecutive game. The Ladyjacks shot an astounding 49.1% from the field in the win, while shooting 73% from the free-throw line to cap off their strong day. The Ladyjacks got another strong day of production from their bench as they finished with 20 bench points in the win thanks to nine points from Trinity More. On the defensive end, the Ladyjacks continue to play greedy as they recorded their sixth straight game with double-digit turnovers thanks to a six-block, six-steal performance on defense. SFA was able to turn those 12 turnovers forced into 13 points off turnovers and were dominant in the paint once again as Kurstyn Harden helped lead a 46-point scoring effort down low for SFA.

The Ladyjacks will be on the road once again next week as they get to travel to Edinburg on Thursday, February 8th as they look to sweep the season series against the UTRGV Vaqueros with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CST.