BOX SCORE

AUSTIN, Texas – The Concordia Texas women's basketball team surpassed Southwestern 69-64 Tuesday night to close out November a perfect 2-0 at home.

The Tornados (2-0) used a 9-3 run that spanned the closing moments of the first half to take control of the contest.

Concordia trailed 24-23 with 3 minutes left before the half. At that point, the Tornados went on the attack and surged to eventually take a 32-25 lead into the break. The lead would stretch to as much as 13 with 5:50 left in the fourth. The Pirates would outscore the Tornados 18-10 as the quarter went on, but Concordia's impressive free throw shooting helped seal the victory. As a team, CTX was an impressive 15-of-20 (75 percent) at the charity stripe.

Emily Cullers had a game-high 19 points and seven steals to lead the CTX effort while Mercedes Ellison added 18 points and Jaela Dejean chipped in 15. Brenisha Payne went a perfect 6-for-6 at the line, including 4-of-4 in the fourth quarter.

The Tornado defense forced 21 Pirate turnovers and cashed them in for 20 points.

Tori Carraway led the Pirates' scoring with 12 points and had a game-high eight boards.

CTX makes the short trek to Georgetown to take on Texas Lutheran and rematch Southwestern in the Pirates' Thanksgiving tournament. The Tornados open the event against the Bulldogs on Saturday at 2 p.m.