The Howard Payne Lady Jackets halted a two-game skid and moved back into second place in the American Southwest Conference West Division standings with an 83-67 victory over the Sul Ross Lady Lobos Saturday afternoon at the Brownwood Coliseum.
The Lady Jackets (8-6, 5-3) – who led the ASC West when the week began – were coming off losses of 67-48 at Hardin-Simmons Monday and 76-65 at Sul Ross (8-12, 6-5) on Thursday night.
Howard Payne head coach Yannick Denson attributed Saturday’s turnaround to the Lady Jackets’ improved focus on the game plan.
“I thought we did a really good job of coming out early and scoring and not being down,” Denson said. “We had the lead the entire game, and our start was key.”
The Lady Jackets scored as many points in the first period Saturday – 24 – as they did the entire first half Thursday. While Howard Payne trailed Sul Ross by a 40-24 count at halftime two days ago, the Lady Jackets carried a 41-28 advantage into the halftime locker room Saturday.
Sul Ross did make a run early in the third period and trimmed Howard Payne’s lead to 46-40 at the 4:12 mark. But freshman Amanda Turpin – who led the Lady Jackets with 16 points – buried three consecutive three-pointers to stretch HPU’s lead back to 13 points, 55-42, with 2:24 left in the quarter. The Lady Jackets led by no fewer than 10 points the rest of the day.
“What we talk about all the time is answering the call and that was an opportunity for a freshman to step up and answer the call,” Denson said. “Big ups to (Sul Ross) Coach Katie (Novak), she switched to go to zone and threw a wrinkle at us but we answered it and made threes. We shot 40 of them but we made 11, and those 11 counted today.”
Howard Payne knocked down 41 percent (30 of 74) of its shots, including 45 percent (17 of 38) in the first half, and overcame 60 percent (12 of 20) free throw shooting. The Lady Jackets also owned a 58-41 edge in rebounds, which led to a 23-9 advantage in second-chance points.
Along with Turpin, Chelsey Harris, Salina Ali and Lily Janek finished in double figures with 14, 12, and 10 points, respectively. Also scoring for HPU were Kayla Brigance with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds, Kendra Brown with six points, Catlyn Ward with four, Bria Neal and Payge Grable with three apiece and Delaney Ingram, Haley Arledge and Trynadee Greenwell with two points each.
Sul Ross hit 32 percent (20 of 63) of its field goals, 30 percent (6 of 20) of its three-pointers, and 68 percent (21 of 31) of its free throws.
Teresa Quintana and Jocelyne Roque led Sul Ross with 17 points apiece. Vania Hampton, who tallied a double-double of 30 points and 14 rebounds Thursday, was limited to nine points with 13 boards Saturday.
The Lady Jackets wrap up the regular season at Concordia at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and at Mary Hardin-Baylor at 1 p.m. Saturday. Howard Payne is hoping to hold on to one of the top two seeds from the West in order to host a first-round game in the revamped ASC Championship Tournament.
“We want to control our own destiny and not give the opportunity to our opponents to dictate where we go, or if we host for the first round of the conference tournament,” Denson said. “We’ve struggled on the road shooting the basketball so we’ve got to make shots early and often when we’re on the road.”
