November 23, 2015
BASKETBALL (W): MARSHALL, Texas (11/23/15) - It took a 10-3 run in the final three minutes of the game by the East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team to hold off Texas College (0-2), 57-53, moving to 3-0 on the season for the first time since 2005-06. Malaisia Chisholm led the team with a career-high 19 points and scored five of the team's final 10 points of the game.
"It was another game where we didn't play all that well, but we found a way to win," said ETBU head coach Edsel Hamilton. "There have been little bits and pieces of things that we've really been stressing, and we're getting them one by one. One day we're going to get them all together."
Chisholm scored a game-high 19 points to go along with six rebounds, one steal and a blocked shot. Joining Chisholm in double figures for ETBU were Cekret Davis (13 points, nine rebounds, four assists) and Taylee Alexander (10 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, two blocks). For Texas College, Kaylee Gaddis had 12 points, five rebounds, two assists, and three steals. Linet Juma contributed another dozen points as well as five rebounds and two blocks.
In quarter one, five different ETBU players scored as the team went ahead by a 19-12 margin. Nearly seven minutes into the action, ETBU led by a 17-7 margin. In that spurt, ETBU hit five-of-10 shots as well as four-of-six free throws. Chisholm converted a pair of 3-point shots, while April Leonard hit one herself to account for the 17-7 ETBU edge at the 3:05 mark. In comparison, Texas College converted three-of-12 shots from the floor and had three turnovers.
In all, ETBU scored eight-straight points before a Texas College basket made the score 19-9 in favor of ETBU. Texas College would score the first quarter's final five points to make it a 19-12 deficit.
The second quarter featured an opening 8-2 Texas College run to slash ETBU's advantage to a single point at 21-20. In that stretch, four different Texas College players contributed a basket, capped by Ariel Chandler's successful shot with 6:51 on the clock. After an exchanging of baskets by the teams, ETBU had a 10-0 run to go up, 33-22.
During this stretch, ETBU hit three-of-six field-goal attempts and four-of-four free-throw shots. Texas College, however, missed five-consecutive shots from the field and turned the ball over three times. A Juma free throw with 16 seconds until halftime accounted for Texas College's final point of half one as well as the final point before the half.
In the first half, ETBU hit 37.9 percent of its shots from the floor (11-of-29) and held a 24-to-18 rebounding edge. By comparison, Texas College converted 31.3 percent of its first-half field goals (10-of-32).
Ahead by a 33-23 margin at halftime, ETBU sputtered offensively in the third quarter. In the first four-plus minutes of play, ETBU missed five-straight field goals and turned the ball over twice, but did convert three-of-four free-throw attempts to stay ahead, 36-32. ETBU then had four different players score baskets to push the team ahead by a 44-36 margin after a Leonard two-point shot with 3:02 on the clock. ETBU stayed in the lead, 45-38, at the third-quarter buzzer.
In the fourth and final quarter, Texas College scored 12-of-14 points to assume a 50-47 edge with just over three minutes to go in the game. In slightly over seven minutes of play, ETBU continued to struggle offensively, converting one-of-11 shots from the floor and turning the ball over eight times. ETBU responded and closed the game with a 10-3 run to escape with the victory. In this final spurt, Chisholm had five points, while Davis and Leonard contributed three and two points, respectively.
ETBU hit eight-of-37 second-half shots for a 21.6 percent field-goal percentage and had 13 turnovers in that span alone. For the day, ETBU had a team field-goal percentage of 29.7 percent (19-of-64) and claimed a 55-to-30 advantage in rebounds.
ETBU plays next on Monday night at Texas Wesleyan University for a 5 p.m. matchup.