LANGSTON, OK – Texas Wesleyan Women's Basketball (12-15, 10-9 SAC) got back above .500 in conference with a dominating performance over Langston University (9-18, 4-15 SAC) on the road Thursday night, 75-53.
 
The Lady Rams held the Lady Lions to eight points in the second quarter and scored 23 points in a fourth quarter that put the game away.
 
Texas Wesleyan's ball movement spurred the big win. TXWES registered 20 assists on 26 made shots, the second-most assists in a game this season. 16 offensive rebounds were third best this season, with four different players grabbing three: Evie Whorley, Lorian Benjamin, Adrianna Davis and Tomi Sanchez.
 
Sanchez had a particularly big night off the bench. In 18 minutes, Sanchez scored 13 points with five rebounds and two assists, hitting on 3-of-5 three-point attempts. It was Sanchez' season high and second game in double figures in 2019.
 
Forcing turnovers and capitalizing off those turnovers was another big storyline. Langston coughed the ball up 24 times, which led to 32 points off turnovers. The Lady Rams won all the rest of the key hustle stats, including a 10-4 edge on the fast break.
 
Lexi Burns nailed four threes for 16 points, four assists and three rebounds. Karah Sicurella filled the stat sheet with eight points, six assists and two steals. Whorley chipped in nine points, Davis added eight hitting all four free throws, Chrystal Ngawuchu knotched seven points along with Nicole Gleason's six points / nine rebounds and Benjamin's six points, five rebounds and five assists.
 
Langston had a miserable second frame in which the Lions shot 3-of-10 from the floor, 0-of-4 from long range and 2-of-6 from the foul line. Langston scored eight points in the second quarter the first time these two teams got together this season, missing all three of their deep shot attempts.
 
The start of the fourth quarter, Texas Wesleyan pulled away. Up 52-39, Ngawuchu put in a bucket with 9:09 to play, followed by another successful look inside at the 8:20 mark. After a Burns' missed three, she redeemed herself with a bucket with 7:18 to play, boosting TXWES' lead back up to 15.
 
With 6:32 to play, Sanchez nailed a three to make it 61-43, assisted by Sicurella – her third assist in as many buckets made. Whorley scored a two-pointer before Davis got a steal leading to two successful Whorley free throws, giving the Lady Rams a 64-43 advantage with 5:32 to play (12-4 run).
 
At one point, the Lions were down just 43-37 (4:04 to play in the third quarter), but the Rams went on a 7-0 run (three-pointers by Sanchez, Sicurella and a Sicurella free throw) to boost spirits. The Lady Lions never recovered.
 
DEFENSE WINNING GAMES
In 27 games this season, Texas Wesleyan has held opponents to a single-digit scoring quarter 17 times. Coming into Thursday, the Lady Rams were 13th in the nation it total rebound defense and 27th in scoring defense per game, giving up an average of just 61.5 points per game.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Texas Wesleyan will face Central Christian Saturday at 1 p.m. in McPherson, Kansas before returning home for the final two games of the SAC season on February 21 (Wayland Baptist) and February 23 (Oklahoma Panhandle State).