SEGUIN, Texas – The Southwestern University Pirates women's basketball team got a dominant performance from Cecily Woolfolk to defeat the Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs 66-62 on the road.
Woolfolk scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, with seven coming on the offensive end, to notch her seventh double-double of the season to help avenge a 71-64 loss the Pirates suffered at home on Jan. 15.
The Pirates started slow, falling behind 16-8 at the end of the first quarter with Woolfolk scoring six of the eight points but missing several inside shots.
She got going in the second quarter, working inside for 12 of the Pirates' 22 points. The Bulldogs were paced by the one-two punch of Bryanna Delgado and reserve Morgan Rodriguez, who combined to score 23 points in the half on 9-for-11 shooting. The Bulldogs moved the ball freely, assisting on 10 of their 15 made baskets to just six turnovers and hitting 4-for-7 from deep to give TLU a 39-30 lead at the half.
Southwestern ramped up its defense in the second half, holding Texas Lutheran to just nine points in the third quarter and 23 points in the half, limiting the Bulldogs to just 27.6 percent shooting.
Woolkfolk was more efficient on less volume in the second half, hitting four of her five shots to finish 10-for-16 for the game and 7-for-11 from the free-throw line.
After scoring only two points on a pair of Tori Carraway free throws, the Pirates' bench came alive in the second half with Carraway scoring eight and Courtney Maass scoring seven, shooting 7-for-8 from the free-throw line.
Carraway was efficient, shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and 4-for-5 from the free-throw line to scored 10 points while grabbing seven rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes. In the six games since the Pirates shifted their lineup to stagger their two primary post scorers, Carraway has reached double figures in three games and shot better than 50 percent in four of the six games while giving the second unit a strong hub to work off of.
The Pirates' ability to pound the ball inside for a full 40 minutes with a quality post option wore down the TLU defense as Southwestern shot 50 percent in the second half (12-for-24) and got to the free-throw line 16 times, hitting 11.
With the win, the Pirates improve to 10-13 on the season and 9-5 in conference play, which is currently good for fourth in the SCAC standings. Texas Lutheran falls to 15-8 on the season and 11-3 in conference and currently sit in third place.
Southwestern will close out its season at home this weekend, hosting Centenary on Friday, Feb. 15 for its Pink Game at 5:30 p.m. and closing the regular season out Saturday, Feb. 16 against Austin College for Senior Day at 4:00 p.m.
