HAMMOND, La. – A ferocious 7-0 run late in Saturday afternoon's game was not enough for the East Texas A&M University women's basketball team to overcome an early deficit against the Southeastern Lady Lions, falling 76-71 in the Southland Conference opener at the University Center.
 
The Lions fall to 2-3 on the season and start 0-1 in Southland play for the third year in a row. Southeastern improves to a perfect 8-0 all-time against East Texas A&M and is now 1-0 in SLC action and 2-3 on the season as well.
 
Trailing 67-57 with 2:17 left, East Texas A&M scored seven in a row within a span of just 58 seconds, hitting a three-pointer, jumper, and two shots at the line. Southeastern halted the run with a three-pointer on the other end and East Texas A&M was not able to get the deficit shorter than three the rest of the game.
 
Southeastern jumped out to a 16-6 lead start the game, but East Texas A&M never allowed the lead to get bigger than 10 and came all the way back to tie the game at 28 in the second quarter. As part of a 5-0 run, East Texas A&M took a 40-39 lead at the 5:25 mark of the third, its first since the early minutes of the game.
 
SLU pushed its lead back up to seven to end the third, holding East Texas A&M to just two points for a span of six minutes.
 
Tiani Ellison (Durant, Okla.) had team-best 21 points and seven rebounds to lead the way for East Texas A&M, while Ahmya Boyce (Newport News, Va.) added 13 and Reza Po (San Bruno, Calif.) scored 10.
 
Off the bench, Nina Horvath (Oberwart, Austria) had 10 points and six rebounds, while Rezia Castillo (Houston – Clear Brook) also added 10 points and three rebounds.
 
Lihi Azouri was the leading scorer for Southeastern with 29 points on 10 for 17 shooting, going 5 for 7 from deep and 4 for 4 at the line. Eryn McKinzie scored 14, while Aliyah Collins added 10. Southeastern had the 49-26 advantage in rebounding.
 
Southeastern shot 47.2 percent in the game, while East Texas A&M shot 39 percent. From deep, ETAMU went 4 for 31, and Southeastern went 7 for 12. Both teams had 23 free throw attempts in the game, East Texas A&M knocked down 13 of them, SLU made 19.
 
UP NEXT
East Texas A&M has another 10-day break, returning to action on December 2 at Louisiana for an 11 a.m. tip-off in Lafayette.