Abram Choate, SID
BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Lady Jackets out-rebounded the Lady Crusaders of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor 45-33 in the game to win 69-38 in the Brownwood Coliseum on Saturday.
HPU's So. C Stacey Blalock(Magnolia HS) scored the first bucket of the game at the 16:55 mark in the first half as both teams had trouble getting their offenses started. HPU then jumped out to a 7-2 lead at 14:30 in the first. At 11:08, a fast-break lay-up by So. G Meia Daniels(Fossil Ridge HS) moved the score to 13-4 HPU. The Lady Jackets extended their lead to 13 (25-12) at 5:49 to play in the first. Howard Payne pushed their lead to 36-21 and went into the locker room up 15. Meia Daniels' 14 points highlighted the first half.
HPU started the second half on a 9-2 run (45-25) sparked by baskets from So. F Kim Hoffman(Bloomington HS) and Stacey Blalock. The Lady Jackets pushed their lead to 24 (53-29) on a 3-pointer by Fr. G Jessica Stephenson(Duncanville HS) at 11:55 to play in the game. UMHB from that point was unable to get back in the game and HPU coasted to a 69-38 victory. HPU out-rebounded UMHB 45-33 in the game; HPU also forced 26 turnovers and had twenty offensive rebounds.
Meia Daniels led all scorers with 20 points on 7 of 15 shooting, and she also had seven rebounds. So. C Jennifer Wallenmeyer(Edmond, OK-Santa Fe HS) had a double-double off the bench with 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting and eleven rebounds (7 offensive). Kim Hoffman also contributed 10 points and seven rebounds.
The only Lady Crusader in double digits was Jessica Wurzbach with 10 points.
The Lady Jackets are on the road against McMurry University on Thursday in Abilene at 5:30pm.
