Women's Basketball 11/20/2012 11:11:00 PM

Women’s Basketball Gets First Win of the Season

Box Score LAREDO, Texas (November 20, 2012) – Four players scored in double-figures for the Dustdevils as the TAMIU women’s basketball team picked up their first win of the season, knocking off Western New Mexico 64-58 Tuesday night at the TAMIU KCB.

“It’s good to get a win even though it wasn’t the prettiest,” said Head Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson. “We haven’t faced a situation like the one we did tonight where the game was fairly close, so there are a lot of teaching points that will come out of this. We took some ill-advised shots and committed some turnovers that were unnecessary late in the game, but we did manage to finish them off.”

Tina Dang and Rosebud Guthrie each finished with double-doubles on the night to lead the Dustdevils. Dang recorded 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Guthrie kicked in 11 points and 10 boards. Sam Chacon and Kim Brown also scored in double-digits, adding 12 and 10 points respectively. TAMIU also knocked down 20-25 free throws, compared to just a 9-25 effort from Western New Mexico.

The Dustdevils shot the ball better than they had in recent games, but struggled again from long range. Dang and Chacon finished a combined 1-15 from beyond the arc and TAMIU shot just 19 percent as a team from distance.

“1-10 is not characteristic of Tina and the same goes for Sam who finished 1-5,” said Coach Bento-Jackson. “We knew we were going to see a zone tonight and we really wanted to get the ball inside and get to three free throw line. We didn’t want to put up shots too early in the shot clock in an effort to break their zone. We did a few times, but for the most part we moved the ball well against their defense.”

The Dustdevils won the battle on the boards, out-rebounding the Mustangs 46-32. TAMIU’s defense held the Mustangs to 38.1 percent shooting from the field and only 9.1 percent from three-point range.

“Our goal coming in was to hold them to 36 percent shooting,” said Coach Bento-Jackson. We did that in the first half, but they shot 40 percent in the second. The reason for that was that we gave up too many offensive boards and allowed for too many second chance points. Our team can’t afford to relax on defense. We had several spurts where we let up and they were able to create something positive. I liked our effort tonight, but we have to eliminate those defensive let ups.”

The Mustangs jumped out to an early lead and were able to maintain a slim advantage for the first nine minutes of the game. With 10:53 remaining in the opening period, Alexandria Dews sliced through the visitors’ defense and converted a tough layup, jumpstarting a 12-0 run to give the Dustdevils a 24-16 lead. After the Mustangs came back with two straight buckets, TAMIU responded with another 8-0 run extending their lead to 32-20. The Mustangs ended with a period on a 3-0 run, cutting the halftime deficit to nine points.

Western New Mexico came out much more aggressive in the second half and trimmed the lead down to just three points with 13:44 remaining. Kim Brown answered with a big three to keep the Dustdevils ahead 41-35. TAMIU pushed their lead back out to nine points with under 10 minutes to play, but the team went cold immediately after. The Dustdevils failed to convert a field goal over the next three minutes allowing the Mustangs to whittle the lead down to just two points with 5:52 left to play. Dang broke the slump with a clutch three pointer, followed by five more straight points from TAMIU to push the lead back out to ten. With the Dustdevils leading 58-51 with under a minute to play, the Mustangs were forced to put TAMIU at the free throw line. Dang and Chacon combined to go 6-6 from the charity stripe in the final minute and the Dustdevils held on for the 64-58 win.

Following the Thanksgiving break, TAMIU goes back on the road for three straight games starting with a two-game set at the Texas A&M Kingsville Classic. The Dustdevils open tournament play against New Mexico Highlands University on November 23 and conclude with Our Lady of the Lake University the following day. The Dustdevils will then open conference play, going on the road to battle St. Mary’s University on December 1.

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