HOUSTON, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran women's basketball team fell to St. Thomas, 72-67, on Friday night in Houston. Texas Lutheran falls to 16-6 (11-2 SCAC) on the season.
With the loss, Texas Lutheran's magic number to clinch a spot in the SCAC Tournament remains at one while St. Thomas kept their SCAC Tournament hopes alive. With the Bulldogs next win, they will punch their ticket to the 2026 SCAC Tournament in Conway, Arkansas.
Davi'Yanna Jones (San Antonio/Stevens) led the Bulldogs with a career-high 24 points and added five rebounds. Lauren Sansano (San Antonio/FEAST) stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, six rebounds, five steals, and two assists. Sarahi Jones (Los Fresnos/Los Fresnos) was the final Bulldog in double figures with 15 points and seven rebounds. Callista Perez (San Antonio/Stevens) grabbed a team and career-high 11 rebounds while dishing out a team-high five assists.
The Bulldogs started slow - shooting 28.6% to trail 19-11 after the first quarter. The shooting woes continued in the second quarter as TLU shot marginally better at 33.3% and would trail 35-25 at halftime.
Texas Lutheran came alive in the third quarter, scoring 27 points in the third quarter to erase the halftime deficit. Davi'Yanna Jones scored 15 of her 24 points in the third quarter while Sansano added eight points of her own.
The Cowgirls led by as many as six points in the fourth quarter but the Bulldogs were able to hang around as a majority of the period was a one possession game. Davi'Yanna Jones scored a second chance basket with 41 seconds remaining to make it a one-point game. The Bulldogs would not score again to fall 72-67.
Turnovers proved to be the difference as St. Thomas forced 14 TLU turnovers leading to 21 points while TLU forced 19 turnovers, leading to only 14 points. St. Thomas was also able to get more production from their bench as they outscored the TLU bench 22-6.
Up next, TLU will travel to Colorado Springs for a matchup with the Colorado College Tigers on Sunday, February 15 as the Bulldogs chances at repeating as SCAC Gold Division champions hang in the balance. Tip-off is set for 3 PM CT. The game will be streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.
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