BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Concordia Women's Basketball team faced two-seeded UT Tyler in the first round of the American Southwest Conference Tournament, falling 69-61 on Thursday night.

Jaela Dejean led the Tornados with a team-high 16 points, while Mercedes Ellison had her second double-double of the season scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. CTX struggled from behind the arc all night going 3-25 in the game. The Tornados outscored the Patriots 19-4 in second-chance points, but only amounted four points off the bench, while UTT had 38 bench points.

It was a close contest in the first quarter, as the Patriots took an early 10-5 lead, but CTX responded with a 9-4 run, capped by Ellison's two free-throws to make 14-all at the end of one. In the second quarter, the Tornados would take their largest lead of the game after a jumper from Desiray Davis made it 30-23 with 2:23 remaining. UTT would close out the quarter though on a 9-2 run and CTX led 33-32 at the half. Ellison had eight rebounds at the half, including five on the offensive glass, while Dejean had eight points.

In the third quarter, the Patriots would outscore the Tornados 15-14 to tie it all up at 47-all at the end of three quarters. UTT scored more than half of their points off the bench in the quarter, including six points coming from Carissa Spiker. CTX fell behind quickly in the fourth, as the Patriots opened the quarter on a 7-0 run. The Tornados would not falter though as three straight layups cut the deficit to one with 5:15 remaining. But CTX was only able to hit two shots in the final 3:38 of the game as they lost 69-61.

With the loss, it concludes the season for the Tornados, who went 10-1 at home during the season, their best mark since 2012. CTX will say goodbye to seniors Alexis Copeland and Emily Cullers, but will return next season with four of the five starters, including the team's leading scorer in Dejean.