KERRVILLE, Texas - The Howard Payne University women's basketball team defeated Schreiner University 81-74 at the SU Event Center. 

Forward Micah Cisneroz finished with a career high 29 points on 10-15 shooting and pulled down nine rebounds during the victory. Sophomore guard Valarie Matlock was second on the Yellow Jackets (1-2) in scoring, finishing with 14 points while also adding seven assists. 

Howard Payne jumped out to an early 10-5 lead in the first quarter before Schreiner (0-2) guard Alina Hilliard drained a three pointer to cap a five point run and notch the score back up at 12 apiece. A layup from Anastasia Willis late in the quarter would help the Yellow Jackets regain the lead, 14-13. 

The Howard Payne defense held Schreiner to a four minute scoring drought to begin the second quarter while the offense began to pull away. The Jackets would climb to their biggest lead of the half, 34-20 behind the tandem of Valarie Matlock and Micah Cisneroz.  

The Mountaineers battled back though and closed the gap on the Lady Jackets as they finshed the half trailing by just nine points, 37-28. Howard Payne forced 12 steals during the half and held the Schreiner offense to 9-23 shooting. 

The Jackets continued scoring into the third quarter and began to receive some production from their bench, which ended up outscoring the Mountaineers bench, 26-16. Howard Payne climbed to a 13 point lead heading into the fourth quarter. 

The Yellow Jackets led 71-58 with just over two minutes left in the game before Schreiner went on a run. They hit three 3 pointers and collected a series of free-throw's in the game's final two minutes to pull within five points but Micah Cisneroz created some contact and drew a foul. Cisneroz buried both free throws and closed out the game to give Howard Payne the 81-74 victory. 

The guard heavy Lady Jackets were able to record 46 points in the paint while forcing 27 turnovers to help propel them to their first victory of the 2016-17 season.  

Howard Payne is now 1-2 on the season and will face the University of Texas at Tyler on November 23rd at 1:00 pm. Live stats and video will be made available at HPUsports.com and join us on Twitter @HPUwbsk for in game updates and more.