Hardin-Simmons women's basketball goes cold in top 20 showdown with East Texas Baptist
Things fell apart late for the Hardin-Simmons women's basketball team in Thursday night's 56-51 loss to East Texas Baptist in their top 20 matchup at the Mabee Complex.
Through almost the entire first half, the No. 17 Cowgirls (12-3 overall, 7-3 ASC) held the lead, with an exception of 2:25 and four ties. But it was No. 20 ETBU taking over in the second half, using its defense to shut down HSU.
That completed the season sweep for the Tigers (11-3, 7-2) who beat HSU 58-54 in Marshall on Dec. 4. The Cowgirls hoped to get the win in their gym, but couldn't finish the job.
"Yeah, it really stinks," HSU coach Kendra Hassell said. "We didn't see the toughness from our kids that I really had hoped for. Obviously, we usually shoot the ball really well here and then to go 11 for 18 from the free throw line was disappointing. That changes a one or two-possession game at the end. That's sad, but we can't dwell on it."
The Cowgirls came out firing, knocking down six 3-pointers in the first quarter and scoring 22 points. The shooting slowed from there. HSU scored 12 points in the second quarter and were held to only two field goals in each of the third and fourth quarters.
"We got a little stagnant on the offensive end," Hassell said. "We stopped making the good decisions that we did earlier. We always come out firing away, unfortunately the second half our energy wasn't where it needed to be. I think what started it was giving up easy baskets at the other end and then that makes us press offensively."
ETBU opened the second half on an 8-0 run to turn a 34-29 deficit into a 37-34 lead. The Cowgirls answered and a 3-pointer from Brittany Schnabel, who finished with a game-high 16 points, put them up 39-37.
The two teams went back-and-forth from there with the Tigers taking a 44-42 lead into the fourth quarter. By the time ETBU finished its 11-0 run that went into the fourth quarter, it was up 50-42.
There was one final push left in HSU that used an 8-0 run to get right back in the game. The run was capped by a three-point play from Kiki Gonzales to tie the game at 50 with 2:01 to play. But the Tigers closed out the game from the free throw line.
Gonzales scored 11 points and She'Ray Wilson had nine, both coming off the bench.
The Cowgirls are off Saturday after Belhaven canceled its trip due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols. They will have another ranked matchup with No. 24 Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton on Thursday before traveling to Concordia on Jan. 29.
"We're going to use it as a teaching point," Hassell said. "We're going to watch film and we'll start working on (UMHB). That's the advantage, we have an entire week to get ready for Mary Hardin-Baylor. We'll start working on them (Friday) and Saturday and, hopefully, we can use that to our advantage."
Jordan Hofeditz covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jhofeditz. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Hardin-Simmons women's basketball goes cold against East Texas Baptist
