The Howard Payne Lady Jackets halted a two-game skid and moved back into second place in the American Southwest Conference West Division standings with an 83-67 victory over the Sul Ross Lady Lobos Saturday afternoon at the Brownwood Coliseum.
The Lady Jackets (8-6, 5-3) – who led the ASC West when the week began – were coming off losses of 67-48 at Hardin-Simmons Monday and 76-65 at Sul Ross (8-12, 6-5) on Thursday night.
Howard Payne head coach Yannick Denson attributed Saturday’s turnaround to the Lady Jackets’ improved focus on the game plan.
“I thought we did a really good job of coming out early and scoring and not being down,” Denson said. “We had the lead the entire game, and our start was key.”
Salina Ali (22) made all seven of her shots, including four treys, and all six of her free throws to lead HPU with 24 points in Thursday’s win. [Photo by Derrick Stuckly]Leading by one point heading into the fourth period, the Howard Payne Lady Jackets reeled off 31 points over the final 10 minutes to cruise past the Concordia Lady Tornados, 84-71, in American Southwest Conference women’s basketball action Thursday night at the Brownwood Coliseum.
The win was the fifth in the last six games for the Lady Jackets (5-4, 2-1), who are tied for second place in the ASC West with Sul Ross (6-9, 4-2), percentage points behind division leader and eighth-ranked Hardin-Simmons (10-3, 5-2). The only loss in that span for HPU was by six points to No. 3 East Texas Baptist (17-0, 9-0).