ABILENE, Texas - Senior guard
Sham Hunter - a former Abilene High School Eagles player - scored a driving layup with 1.9 seconds left in regulation to give the McMurry University women's basketball team a 70-69 win over Howard Payne University in a key American Southwest Conference West Division match-up. The War Hawks improved to 12-10 overall and 10-5 in the ASC, while the Yellow Jackets fell to 13-9 and 9-5 in the league.
The win completed an impressive comeback by McMurry, which trailed by as much as 18 points – 39-21 – with 3:06 left in the second quarter. McM eventually went into the halftime locker room down by 14, 43-29.
By the end of the third quarter, the War Hawks had cut the deficit in half, with Hunter tallying seven of McM's 22 points in the stanza.
Monica Jones canned back-to-back jumpers in the waning minutes of the period, as well.
The War Hawks finally pulled even with the Lady Jackets with 7:13 left to play on a Hunter layup. With 3:36 left, HPU had built its lead to five points (64-59). McM took its first lead of the night with 2:03 remaining on a
Skyler Reyna jumper in the paint, 65-64. After the two teams swapped leads down the stretch, the Howard Payne looked like it might have iced the game after a pair of free throws by Djimonii Jackson with 12 seconds left.
Down, 69-68, McM's Jones hustled the ball up-court, but missed a layup and HPU got the defensive rebound. However, HPU's Jada Evans was tied up and the War Hawks had possession, and one last chance with four seconds to play. Hunter took the inbound, took a quick dribble to the left side of the basket and spun the ball up-and-in for the victory bucket.
Hunter finished the game with a double-double of a team-leading 16 points and 13 rebounds. Teammate Reyna also had a double-double, booking 13 points and a game-high 16 boards (Reyna's 12th double-double of the season).
Jones added 13 points off the McMurry bench, going 4-for-4 from the free throw line.
London Weilert was the fourth double-figure scores for head coach
Brittany Densman-Roes' team, chipping in 10 on a 4-of-9 night from the field.
Sarah Doherty booked nine points and
Isabel Carrion six. Carrion had a game-high five assists, as well.
McMurry will play its final home game on Saturday (Feb. 10/2 p.m.), when it welcomes Sul Ross State University to Kimbrell Arena.
