BOX SCORE

Austin, Texas – Shamika Singleton registered her second double-double in the last three games in leading Concordia University Texas to a convincing 96-51 victory over LeTourneau in American Southwest Conference women's basketball action on Saturday, Dec. 4 at the Concordia Field House. The Tornados forced their opponent to commit 50 turnovers and registered their highest point total since pouring in 97 against Texas Lutheran on Feb. 14, 2009. 

Ahead by a 47-21 score at the break, Concordia (2-2, ASC 2-1) scored the first 10 points of the second half to extend their lead to 36. Lashanda Luckey and Singleton had four points apiece during the stretch. Brianna Smith converted a four-point play to give the hosts a 66-26 lead with 15 minutes left to play before Amanda Sullivan hit a jump shot to extend the advantage to 50 at 78-28 with 11:31 on the clock. The deficit ballooned to as many as 55 points on two made free throws by Dominique Mayberry, giving the Tornados a 91-36 lead at the 4:22 mark and more than enough insurance to produce the lopsided win.

The Tornados scored 10 of the game's first 12 points in the first five minutes and never looked back. Ali Goodwin canned a three-point field goal to close the gap to 11-8 with 13:22 in the half, but that was as close as the YellowJackets would come the rest of the way. The lead grew to as many as 28 points in the frame twice when Smith and Deja Thomas converted layups in the last four minutes before the break.

“The girls played hard, and we finally felt like we found our identity as a team,” said head coach Rusty Rainbolt afterwards. “We want to be a pressure team, play up and down, get a lot of shots up and use our depth. It's always good when the whole team can get a basket.”

Concordia, which had all 16 of its players tally at least one point, was led by Singleton and Tiesha Martin. Singleton finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Martin posted 10 points, seven boards and seven steals. Smith and Margaret Milling, two of only five returning letterwinners, contributed 10 and eight points apiece off the bench. Milling also had six steals. Megan McGuire paced LeTourneau (0-5, ASC 0-4) with a team-high 11 points. Alexis Wighaman added 10 points and three steals.

Concordia continues ASC play when it travels to face Louisiana College on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 5:30 p.m. and Mississippi College on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. Both teams are receiving votes in the national polls.

“Today's performance was great, but we know that it is going to take a better effort than this next weekend,” added Rainbolt. “I believe [Louisiana College and Mississippi College] are the best two teams in the conference right now. We are going to look to go out and play hard and play with them.”