CANYON, Texas – The SWOSU Women's Basketball team turned 26 Texas A&M-Commerce turnovers into 30 points on their way to a 97-79 victory over the Lions on Saturday night in the Semifinals of the South Central Regional at the First United Bank Center in Canyon.
SWOSU came out firing from the jump, hitting 12-of-19 field goal attempts, including a trio of three-pointers, as they built a 29-18 lead at the end of the first quarter. With Lady Bulldog senior
Bethany Franks in foul trouble in the second quarter, however, Commerce would mount a comeback using a 9-0 run to take a 45-43 lead in the closing seconds of the first half. The Lady Dawgs would finish the quarter strong, however, and seize the lead – and momentum – with a 4-0 run courtesy of a basket by
Makyra Tramble followed by a steal and lay-in from
Lauren Ramey.
The Lady Bulldogs would pick up right where they left off in the second half, scoring the first four points of the third quarter and pushing the lead back to nine less than halfway through the period. A three-pointer by Ramey in the closing minute of the third put SWOSU up 70-58 heading into the fourth. SWOSU maintained a lead of at least six points the entire fourth quarter and pulled away in the final minutes, holding the Lions scoreless for the final 2:06 of the game.
SWOSU scored 30 points off turnovers, helping to offset the Lions advantage in the paint (40-36) and on second-chance points (24-20). The Lady Bulldogs battled a much taller Commerce team to the point where they were only outrebounded by four (49-45) and SWOSU got 12 points off the bench while leading for 37:37 minutes of game time.
Leading the charge for SWOSU was Tramble and
Karly Gore, who scored 21 points apiece, with Tramble recording a double-double in her first NCAA Division II postseason game with 11 rebounds.
Macy Gore added 17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals and
Lauren Ramey had 11 points as SWOSU got 85 points out of their starting five on Saturday night.
It was SWOSU's fifth starter and most experienced player who had the biggest impact on the semifinal.
Bethany Franks had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds in addition to two steals – which gives her 299 for her career. While her stats may seem modest, the biggest indicator of her effect on the game was her plus/minus rating, which accounts for the difference in scoring while she was on the court. Each of SWOSU's starters had a plus/minus rating of +16 or better, but it was Franks who led the way as the Lady Bulldogs outscored Commerce by 27 points in her 28:10 of action.
"She's such an impactful player because her leadership and maturity is unprecedented," SWOSU Head Coach
Kelsi Musick said of Franks. "She knows where to be on the floor, she gets tips and steals because she has such great hands and she knows the ins and outs of our offense and defense. It hurt us when she got in foul trouble, but our bench kept us close and Bethany was definitely the difference when she got back in the game."
Eight different Lady Bulldogs scored in the game and eight-of-nine who played also recorded a steal, with SWOSU finishing with 14 in the game. The Lady Dawgs ended the game shooting 47.1% (40-85) from the field, doing most of their damage inside the arc to offset an off-shooting night of 28.6% (8-28) from three-point range.
"I'm extremely proud of my team," Musick said following the game. "While we have really good senior leaders, we're also playing a young group and I'm very pleased with how we executed our game plan tonight. I feel like we were really well-prepared and we had players on the bench step up when we needed them to."
The Lady Bulldogs will now take their 18-3 record into the South Central Regional Final, where they will meet the top-ranked team in NCAA Division II, Lubbock Christian. This is SWOSU's second straight trip to the regional final, and their second postseason meeting with LCU, the last coming in the 2019 NCAA Division II National Championship game, which was won by the Lady Chaps, 95-85, in double overtime.
