Friday, March 7, 2008 , Updated
Women’s basketball: Texas Wesleyan 81, Bacone College 61
Texas Wesleyan Univeristy head men’s basketball coach Terry Waldrop set a school record for wins in his sport earlier this week. On Thursday, head women’s basketball coach Stacy Francis followed suit. Francis’ Lady Rams (21-9) took an 81-61 win over Bacone College (9-15) in quarterfinal action of the Red River Athletic Conference tournament, giving her a school record tying 105 career wins.
On Wednesday, Huston Tillotson University announced that it was forfeiting several contests including a win over the Lady Rams on January 21, because HTU had played an ineligible player. That moved Texas Wesleyan’s record to 20-9 in the regular season entering today’s competition, and put Coach Francis in position to tie the record tonight
The Lady Rams started the game on an 18-3 run. The Rams led wire-to-wire in the first period, while maintaining a double-digit margin for much of the half. After out shooting the Warriors 34%-23% and winning the battle-of-the-boards 24-19, Texas Wesleyan led 27-15 at the intermission.
Texas Wesleyan maintained its double-figure lead throughout the second half, stretching that margin to as many as 22 points.
Only two Lady Rams reached double-figures in scoring; however, ten Lady Rams contributed to the team’s 61 points. Kim Gatlin led the way with 15 points and nine rebounds while Brittany Davenport added 10 points
Texas Wesleyan held Bacone to just 23% shooting for the game, and dominated the glass 50-39.
Francis, in her seventh season, holds a career record of 105-107. With tonight’s win, she has tied Miriam Satern’s school record for wins. Satern posted 105 victories in seven seasons from 1975-1982.
The Lady Rams have advanced to tomorrow’s semifinals. The third seeded Rams will meet the second seed, Wiley College, in SAGU’s Full Life Center at 8:00 p.m.
Source: TWU
