Texas-Tyler Claims ASC Women's Hoops Championship

Texas-Tyler won its first ASC championship with a 68-56 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor.

3/2/2014 6:40:47 PM

Texas-Tyler Game Story

Mary Hardin-Baylor Game Story

TYLER, Texas – Texas-Tyler made the most of its first appearance in the American Southwest Conference Women's Basketball Championship Tournament title game, pulling away in the second half for a 68-56 win over Mary Hardin-Baylor to claim its first conference championship.

With the win, the Patriots (25-3) claimed the ASC automatic berth in the 2014 NCAA Division III Championship. The 64-team national tournament field will be announced Monday (March 3) at 1:30 p.m. CT during the live selection show at www.ncaa.com.

The two teams played close throughout the first half of the championship game, with Mary Hardin-Baylor (18-10) taking a 21-20 lead with six minutes remaining. The Cru extended theirvlead, going up 31-24 on a three-pointer by Kourtney Bevers with just under two minutes to play in the opening half. She'Cara Humphrey converted a three-point play for Texas-Tyler to trim the UMHB lead to four points, 31-27, at halftime.

Texas-Tyler opened the second half with a big run, scoring the first 11 points of the half to go up 38-31 with 16:19 to force the Cru into a 30-second timeout to slow the Patriots. UMHB whittled the difference over the next four minutes and took a 42-40 lead on a Jonelle Smith three-pointer at 11:55.

That would prove to be the Cru's final lead of the day, as Madison Wilson made good on a three-point play a minute later to put Texas-Tyler ahead for good, 43-42. The Patriots closed the game on a 26-14 run to clinch their first ASC women's basketball championship.

Patriot Brittany King, the tournament Most Valuable Player, led all scorers with 21 points and added six rebounds, two blocks and a pair of steals to her stat line. Taylor Murphy scored 11 points while Breann McMillan came off the bench for a game-best nine rebounds.

Mary Hardin-Baylor was led by Alyssa Dean who scored 19 points and handed-out three assists.

King was joined by teammates She'Cara Humphrey and Madison Wilson on the All-Championship Tournament team. Macy Moore and Jovana Miles of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Kaci Willis of Louisiana College, and Morgan Kilgore of Texas-Dallas were also named to the all-tournament team as selected by their coaches.

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