The Chadron State College women’s basketball team started strong early, but gave up more than 45 percent of attempted three-pointers to visiting Texas A&M University-Kingsville in the season opener at the Chicoine Center on Friday night. The guests won 80-63 in a non-conference matchup in both teams’ first game of the year.
“The team played hard tonight,” said CSC Head Women’s Basketball Coach Janet Raymer. “The game didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. We gave them wide open three-pointers, and they made a lot of them.”
The Eagles shot just 1-of-15 from the free throw arc, while A&M shot more than 46 percent.
It was a one score game, for the most part, in the first quarter. CSC led for the majority of minutes in the first period, but Texas A&M Kingsville made a 9-2 run late to lead 18-16.
A three-point play by TAMUK senior Brianna Pena made it a 40-34 game for the visiting Javelinas, going into halftime.
Kingsville led by as many as 20, with 1:16 to play, but the Eagles scored four of the last five points, to cut the lead down.
Pena and teammate Mia Rivers both scored double digits in the second half to ice the game for the Javelinas. They finished with 17 and 19 points apiece, respectively.
The leader for Kingsville, off the bench, was Shelby Ray, who went 9-of-12 from the field, with 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range, and 2-of-2 from the free throw line. She had a game-high eight rebounds with five shot blocks.
Awati Akoi, a transfer from Wayne State last year, and sophomore forward Ashayla Powers, led CSC with 12 points apiece. Akoi was also the rebound leader, with eight boards on Friday.
CSC plays again on Saturday, against a Texas A&M International opponent which went 18-11 overall last year.