Box Score

ABILENE, Texas - McMurry couldn't overcome a 10-point first-half deficit and Howard Payne took an 83-73 victory over McMurry University Saturday afternoon at Kimbrell Arena in American Southwest Conference action.

Hope Hohertz scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Brittany Zamora scored 22 points and had eight assists to help lead the Lady Yellow Jackets to victory and ensure at least a second-place finish in the ASC West.

With two games to spare for both teams, McMurry fell to 11-8 in league play while HPU improved to 14-5 in conference play building a three-game lead.

In the first half, HPU simply outshot McMurry and took a 40-30 advantage into the locker room at halftime. The Lady Yellow Jackets shot 15 of 28 from the floor and the defense held McMurry to a 9 of 26 effort. Both teams had 10 turnovers in the opening period and HPU narrowly edged McMurry 17-16 in the rebounding category so the key difference was shooting percentage. Zamora had 10 points and five assists at half.

In the second half, McMurry limited its turnovers and matched the Lady Yellow Jackets point-for-point. Despite cutting the lead to four points with 4:50 to go, HPU stayed strong and held off the McMurry rally.

LaPorsha Alexander hit the jumper for McMurry that made the score 65-61 in favor of HPU. However, from there the Lady Yellow Jackets countered with six-straight points to extend the lead back to 10 points with 2:09 to go.

Then, HPU hit 12 of its last 15 free-throw opportunities countering McMurry who scored 12 points in the final two minutes.

McMurry will play host to Texas Lutheran Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Kimbrell Arena.