ABILENE, Texas – In the first round of the 2016-17 "Crosstown Showdown," the McMurry University women's basketball team lost at Hardin-Simmons University, 68-53. The War Hawks fell to 5-12 overall and 1-8 in the American Southwest Conference, while the Cowgirls improved to 7-10, 3-6 in ASC play.
 
HSU led wire-to-wire in winning the crosstown match-up. The Cowgirls scored the first five points of the game and held a 17-4 advantage after the first quarter. The War Hawks trailed at the intermission, 35-15.
 
In the second half, however, McM got off the deck and attempted to claw its way back. McMurry played HSU even in the third quarter and out-scored the Cowgirls, 20-15, in the fourth. But the early deficit proved too much to overcome.
 
Freshman Sarah Doherty (Lubbock Cooper H.S.) had the best game of her young McMurry career, scoring a game-high 17 points off of the War Hawks' bench. Doherty hit 5-of-12 from the field – including 3-of-9 from beyond the arc – inn registering her first career double-figure scoring game in the Maroon & White.
 
Doherty also had a game-best five steals and one blocked shot.
 
Fellow freshman Skyler Reyna was McMurry's only other double-digit scorer, with 14 points. In her 28 minutes on the floor, Reyna was 5-of-13 from the floor, passed off for two assists and made a pair of steals.
 
Haley Welch and Kaymee Howell added seven and six points, respectively. McM's leading scorer, Sham Hunter, was held to four points, but grabbed a team-leading five rebounds, made three assists and had three steals.
 
The Cowgirls held a large advantage on the glass, out-rebounding the War Hawks by a 51-23 margin for the game (30-to-6 in the first half).  That translated into a tremendous advantage for points in the paint for the hosts, 38-12.