Women's Basketball Heads to West Texas for Thursday Night Matchup

Women's Basketball 2/6/2019 8:14:00 AM

Women's Basketball Heads to West Texas for Thursday Night Matchup

Silver City, N.M – In their second to last road series, the Lady Mustangs travel to #7 West Texas A&M Thursday, before meeting up again with cross state rival Eastern New Mexico Saturday. Both teams defeated the Lady Mustangs when they came to Silver City earlier this season.

LAST TIME OUT:

The Lady Mustangs (7-12, 3-9 LSC) went head to head with UT- Permian Basin in a mid-week matchup, before hosting Texas Woman's Saturday afternoon.
The Western women got back into the winner's column, defeating the visiting Falcons Tuesday evening. A 13-0 run opened play, before the Falcons finally got on the board at the three minute mark. Going into the half, Western had built up a double-digit lead on a last minute jumper from Kayla Clark (Mesa, Arizona/Dobson High School).
Despite being outscored in the fourth quarter, Western led by as many as 20, taking home a 56-43 victory.
In their second game of the weekend the Pioneers of Texas Woman's entered Drag's Court. The previous meeting, the Pioneers came back in the second half behind efficient shooting to hand the Lady Mustangs their first conference loss.
The teams kept it close throughout the first two quarters, with Western New Mexico scoring 19 points in the second quarter to the Texas Woman's 13. With three seconds to go, Ciara Fields (El Paso, TX/El Dorado) hit a three to tie the game at 33 going into the break.
Texas Woman's could not miss in the second half. A big fourth quarter sealed the deal, as two Pioneers finished with 20 plus points to lead their team to a 76-58 win.
Ciara Fields (El Paso, TX/El Dorado) finished with 15 points, followed by Tatyanna Mcfarland with a double-double scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

SCOUTING THE LADY BUFFS:

The Lady Buffs from West Texas enter the weekend 17-3, and tied with Eastern New Mexico at 9-3 in conference play. Outscoring their opponents on a 13.5 point margin with a 76.1 points per game average, puts them third overall in the LSC.
While on the road last weekend, WT finished 1-1 falling to MSU – Texas on Thursday, before bouncing back with a 95-78 win over Cameron.
Behind the second leading scorer in the conference, averaging 15.8 points per game, Tyesha Taylor leads WT's offense. With a 65.1 field goal percentage, averaging 7.1 a game, the senior guard put up 18 points against the Lady Mustangs in their last meeting.
Teammate Lexi Hightower follows closely behind with 15.3 points per game, and averages 2.2 three-pointers a game. Dishing out 6.5 assists per game is Megan Gamble, enough to top the conference. Defensively, Deleyah Harris grabs 7.3 boards a game, two spots behind Western's McFarland, at fifth in the LSC.

HISTORY VERSUS THE LADY BUFFS:
Since joining the Lone Star Conference Western has yet to top the Lady Buffs, leading the series 5-0. Thursday's meeting will be the second this season. In their first meeting, WT held Western to single digit scoring in two of the four quarters.
Western put up 24 points in the final quarter, but could not close the gap falling 64-49.
Tyesha Taylor led all scorers with 18 points, going 8-9 from the floor and 2-2 from the free throw line.
For the Lady Mustangs, Cassandra Vickery (Tularosa, NM/Tularosa) contributed 14 points, followed by Sara Lopez (El Paso, Texas/Horizon High School) with 12 and Tatyanna McFarland (Riverside, California/Valley View High School) with 10.

LOOKING AHEAD:

The Western New Mexico women's basketball team look to notch a few more wins in hopes of making the top-eight that move on to the conference tournament at the end of this month.
Currently sitting at 10^th in the conference standings, Cameron sits at 9^th behind Texas A&M – Kingsville who holds the final spot to make the tournament. Western will meet up with both those teams in the next few weeks.

Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. (CT) in Canyon, Texas at the First United Bank Center.

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Players Mentioned

#20 Ciara Fields: G; 5' 9"; Junior

#13 Cassandra Vickery: G; 5' 7"; Freshman

#12 Tatyana McFarland: F; 5' 10"; Senior

#32 Kayla Clark: F; 5' 10"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#20 Ciara Fields
: 5' 9"; Junior
: G

#13 Cassandra Vickery
: 5' 7"; Freshman
: G

#12 Tatyana McFarland
: 5' 10"; Senior
: F

#32 Kayla Clark
: 5' 10"; Junior
: F