KERRVILLE, Texas – The McMurry women's basketball team won its third American Southwest Conference West Division title in program history Saturday as McMurry rolled past Schreiner, 83-61, in the regular-season finale at the Edington Center. 

It is the first West Division title for the McMurry women since the 2005-06 campaign.  McMurry was also co-champs of the West Division with Hardin-Simmons in 1999-00.  By virtue of McMurry's win over Schreiner, McMurry will host next week's ASC Women's Basketball Championship Tournament, which runs Feb. 27-March 1 at Kimbrell Arena.  McMurry will take on Texas Tyler -- the No. 4 seed in the ASC East Division -- in opening-round action of the tourney on Friday, Feb. 27. 

“Winning the West Division was one of our goals for the year and we are definitely excited about it, but this is just a step closer to where we want to be,” McMurry coach Veronica Snow said.  “We want to win the conference championship on our home floor in front of our fans in Abilene.  We are excited about hosting the tournament and we think it will provide us with a big boost having our fans their to support us.”

McMurry completely controlled the flow of the game in the first half as they took a commanding 24-point advantage into the break (51-27).  McMurry shot 52 percent (15 of 29) from the floor in the first frame while McMurry's full-court pressure defense was a large reason why the Lady Mountaineers only mustered a 29-percent effort (8 of 28) from the floor. 

McMurry jumped out to a quick 17-6 lead just five minutes into the game.  The teams battled evenly over the next five minutes of the game as McMurry continued to lead by 11 points (24-13) at the 10-minute mark.  But McMurry dominated the final 10 minutes of the first frame as they closed out the half on a 27-14 run to take their comfortable lead into halftime. 

McMurry's dominate first half proved to be too much for Schreiner to overcome, even though the Lady Mountaineers outscored McMurry in the second half, 34-32.  McMurry shot 51 percent (29 of 57) from the field for the game while Schreiner shot 31 percent (18 of 59) from the floor.  McMurry's pressure defense also forced 26 Schreiner turnovers for the game.

Sophomore center Jordan Stansell led all players in scoring as she finished with a career-high 17 points (on 7 of 9 shooting).  McMurry seniors Amber Horton and Ashley Stephens joined Stansell in double figures as they added 13 points apiece.  Senior point guard Dominique Brown also had a solid game for McMurry as she dished out a game-high seven assists and also collected a game-high five steals. 

The win pushes McMurry to 20-5 overall and 17-4 in conference play; meanwhile, the loss ends Schreiner's season at 2-23 and 2-19.