Complete Box Score

FORT WORTH, Texas – Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Lady Rams of Texas Wesleyan couldn’t overcome 38 turnovers, and fell to the Lady Rams of Huston-Tillotson College 89-81.

Ashley Walker and Kim Cooper kick-started the Wesleyan offense, scoring the first two buckets in what would become a 9-2 run to open the game. An aggressive full-court press by Huston-Tillotson, though, forced five consecutive Wesleyan turnovers, and Huston-Tillotson would take advantage. Veronica Melgoza hit from underneath the goal, and the H-T Lady Rams grabbed their first lead, 10-9, at the 14-minute mark.

For the next ten minutes, the teams played quite evenly. Shayla Coleman hit a pair of free throws to bring Wesleyan to within two at 21-23 with 4:10 on the clock, but the Huston-Tillotson shooters caught fire. Felisha Drake connected for two, Kyneta Coleman buried a three-pointer, and Misty Manor turned two steals into easy buckets as the H-T Lady Rams scored the game’s next ten points, expanding their lead to 33-21. They would take a 37-26 lead to the break.

Huston-Tillotson opened up the second frame by expanding their lead. After eight minutes of play, they had built it up to 16 at 57-41, but Wesleyan fought back. Kori Yates scored on an impressive drive, then Walker hit back to back buckets. Huston-Tillotson called a timeout to slow the game down, but Walker immediately put back a miss by Yates as Wesleyan closed the gap to ten.

Shayla Coleman and Shawndrika Courtney then took control, each scoring underneath, drawing a foul, and hitting the free throw. Coleman’s brought Wesleyan to within four, 64-60, with just under eight minutes remaining.

Wesleyan would keep the lead close for a few minutes, but eventually they began to turn the ball over again. Manor scored off of a steal for Huston-Tillotson, followed by another from Melgoza and another from Manor, and just like that the lead was back up to ten points. As the clock went past the three-minute mark, Wesleyan began to foul, but Huston-Tillotson shot well enough from the stripe to keep the game out of reach.

Huston-Tillotson had five players finish with double digit points, led by Drake with 20. She also finished with a team-high eight rebounds before fouling out late in the game. Kyneta Coleman scored 19, Misty Manor had 16, Veronica Melgoza scored 12, and Marquesa Chatman had ten points for the Lady Rams, who improve to 3-8 on the season, 2-4 in Red River Conference play.

Ashley Walker had a 17 point second half to finish with a game-high 21. She also pulled down eight rebounds. Shayla Coleman also played a good second half, scoring 14 of her 18 points in the frame. She also posted six rebounds. Shawndrika Courtney score 11 for the Lady Rams, and Jashana Pitt finished with ten.

The Lady Rams drop to 7-9 on the year, and now sit at 1-5 in Red River Conference play. They travel to Houston on Monday to face #7 Houston Baptist University. The Lady Huskies are undefeated in conference play this year.

The next Wesleyan home game is on February 1 against Southwestern Assemblies of God University. The Lady Rams look to avenge their first conference loss of the season at 5:30 PM in the Sid Richardson Gymnasium.