On a night where the Howard Payne Lady Jackets seemed a step or two off in all aspects of their game, the season came to an end as the Sul Ross Lady Lobos captured a 75-65 victory in the quarterfinals of the American Southwest Conference Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament Wednesday at the Brownwood Coliseum.

The victory is the first for Sul Ross (10-13), the third seed from the West Division, in the ASC tournament in just their second appearance. Despite the loss and a chance to host the rest of the ASC tournament, Howard Payne (10-7) still owns the most wins in the history of the tournament with 22.

In this season’s rubber match between Sul Ross and Howard Payne, the Lady Lobos controlled the momentum from start to finish. The Lady Jackets led for just 23 seconds, converting the first two free throws, then found themselves in catch-up mode most of the night, trailing between eight and 15 points for the bulk of the contest.

“Big kudos to Sul Ross, they dominated from start to finish,” said Lady Jackets head coach Yannick Denson. “They kept their lead, they won the game. They managed the little details in the game and that’s what matters.”

Howard Payne defeated Sul Ross at the Coliseum by an 83-67 count on Feb. 27, just two days after the Lady Jackets dropped a 76-65 decision in Alpine. Denson stated the biggest difference in the two games in Brownwood was how they began.

“The way they started and the way we started was night and day,” Denson said. “They took the energy we had from the start last time and and we took theirs. We didn’t fight back very well, and we didn’t rebound the ball like we needed to.”

The Lady Jackets were outrebounded, 53-33, and despite committing only 13 turnovers Howard Payne converted just 27 percent (21 of 77) of it shots, 25 percent (10 of 40) of its three-pointers and 62 percent (13 of 21) of its free throws.

“We shot the ball 26 more times in the gym we practice in every single day, we have to be more productive, we have to put the ball in the hole and we didn’t do that today,” Denson said. “We had some ill-advised shots, and it’s just hard to win games when people don’t show up in big-time games.”

ASC West Player of the Week Amanda Turpin led HPU with 23 points followed by 18 from Salina Ali, 10 from Chelsey Harris, six from Mallory Garcia, four from Kendra Brown, three from Bria Neal and one point from Payge Grable.

Despite committing 32 turnovers, Sul Ross shot 45 percent (23 of 51) from the floor, 40 percent (8 of 20) at the three-point arc and 88 percent (21 of 24) at the charity stripe.

Vania Hampton, with 19 points and 14 rebounds, and Alexia Carmosino, with 19 points and 10 boards, led the charge for Sul Ross while Kaylee Martinez and Keona Loftis each chipped in 14 points.

“They had four kids in double figures, two with double-doubles, and we still forced 32 turnovers,” Denson said. “But if you don’t finish, it’s hard to win a basketball game. We’ll find a way in the offseason to be better at the things that all year long have been our Kryptonite – rebounding the basketball, shooting the ball more consistently, and just taking the right shots. We didn’t do that tonight very well.”

Reflecting of the season and looking ahead to next year, Denson said, “We’re very young and very talented but you keep bringing in new kids and continue to recruit, bring in the right kind of kids to fit our university. I think we have a very tight knit group of talented kids still trying to put the puzzle pieces together and make a pretty picture. I’m excited about the future, we’ve got some good recruits coming in next year that will be great additions to the squad, but I really want to see this squad grow and mature.”

Sul Ross – the highest remaining West Division seed left after No. 4 seed Mary Hardin-Baylor upset West Division champ Hardin-Simmons, 79-75, in overtime Wednesday – will host the remainder of the ASC tournament Sunday and Monday.