FORT WORTH - Another strong defensive effort and step-up play from two Texas Wesleyan guards helped the Lady Rams (4-3, 2-0 SAC) to a 69-61 victory over John Brown (6-2, 2-1 SAC) Saturday afternoon.
No team has scored more than 70 points against the Rams this season, the first time Texas Wesleyan went a nine-game stretch (exhibitions included) since the team closed out the 2013-2014 season with 10 such games. The Lady Rams held the 6th best shooting team in the NAIA (47.7 percent) to just 38.6 percent and scored 69 points against the sixth-best scoring defense in the association (50.6 points allowed coming in).
Evie Whorley hit critical buckets in the fourth. With the Golden Eagles blanketing Rams' leading scorer Nicole Gleason much of the day, Whorley found her rhythm with her team up 58-49. Whorley scored eight of the next nine points for the Lady Rams, finishing with a team high 13 points, seven rebounds and three steals (team leader in all categories).
Just before that, Lorian Benjamin took and made her first two shots of the game. Up 46-39, Benjamin pulled up from the elbow-extended as the shot clock expired rolling in a bucket. On the next possession she popped a six-footer to boost the lead back to nine, 50-41. This all came after John Brown trimmed the deficit to just four, 40-36, with 4:19 to play in the third frame, halting any momentum John Brown was building.
It was the second straight season Texas Wesleyan scored 69 points to beat the Golden Eagles in the Sid Richardson Center. TXWES won 69-49 in 2017.
Early, Jordan Brightwell and Crystal Ngawuchu dominated inside, splitting double teams and hitting hooks, left-handers and pull up jumpers in the paint. Brightwell had 12 points while Ngawuchu finished with six.
The Lady Rams dominated the paint, winning points 26-14 and rejected six shots – three by Brightwell, including a vicious rejection that sent the ball to the back wall. It was the second game this season Texas Wesleyan has swatted away six shots.
Gleason finished with eight points, joined by a cast of contributing scorers (Lexi Bruns with seven, Karah Sicurella with seven, Kyla Grant with six).
The Lady Rams shot 7-of-11 in the fourth quarter, 7-of-8 not counting three-point attempts. The team was +6 at the line, going 9-for-10 and finished +8 in the turnover department, forcing 15 while giving the ball away just seven times, the fewest number of turnovers in a game since the five they had against Southwest Assemblies of God on January 15 last season.
The two times in the game John Brown took the lead, Texas Wesleyan responded immediately. Up 6-2, the Golden Eagles surrendered an 11-0 run, falling behind 13-6. Down 28-27, the Rams scored six straight near the end of the first half.
WHAT'S NEXT
A 12-day break in conference before heading to the University of Science and Arts. Saturday December 8, the Lady Rams will make the short trip up north to Denton to take on Texas Womens University.
