BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University women's basketball team suffered a 77-71 loss to conference opponent East Texas Baptist University Thursday evening at the Brownwood Coliseum.

East Texas Baptist used 47% shooting from the field and a 51-38 rebounding advantage to defeat Howard Payne 77-71.

Trailing by 10 midway through the fourth quarter, the Lady Jackets would begin to make a late push rallying to within two with under a minute to play. A Jessica Leaks layup with :51 seconds remaining brought the Lady Jackets within two, 73-71. ETBU would close out the game by hitting four consecutive free-throws to cut short the HPU comeback.

With ETBU leading 22-14 at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Jackets would rally and only trail 34-32 at the half. 

Howard Payne shot just 38% from the field but would force 21 ETBU turnovers. HPU outscored ETBU in points off turnovers 28-8 in the game.

Yessenia Cazares led HPU with 16 points on 6-for-13 shooting. Danyel Bradley followed with 15 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Micah Cisneros added 10 points off the bench.

ETBU was led by April Leonard with a game high 18 points followed by Kaitlyn Packett and Tavlee Alexander with 17 points each.

Howard Payne is now 5-8 overall and 2-3 in American Southwest Conference play. ETBU stands at 10-2 overall and 4-0 in league play. The Lady Jackets will play Belhaven University at home on Saturday starting at 1:00 pm.
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