BROWNWOOD, Texas – Akyra Hodges' 14 points off the bench led the way for the Southwestern University women's basketball team as the Pirates won on the road at Howard Payne University 61-52 on Tuesday evening.
Hodges, a 5-foot-9 forward, is having a huge impact in her first year of collegiate basketball after having graduated from Langham Creek High School this past spring. Hodges is now averaging 12 points and six rebounds per contest after adding five rebounds to her total against HPU.
Southwestern (2-2) and HPU (0-3) were pretty even over the majority of the game statistically and one would be hard pressed to find any other statistical category to look at what gave the advantage in the end to the Pirates other than the 19-6 second quarter score in favor of the Pirates.
The Pirates jumped out to an early 5-0 just 1:28 into the game thanks to an Aniyah Burke three-pointer and a pair of made free throws from Reece Sandercock.
The Lady Jackets battled their way back to take a 13-11 lead with 1:21 left in the opening quarter, but Burke would make sure the Pirates ended the period tied at 13-13 when she made a pair of attempts from the charity stripe with 0:58 remaining.
Then the aforementioned decisive second quarter would see the Lady Jackets lose a bit of their sting. Olivia Keyser got the scoring started in the quarter started for Southwestern when she drilled a long range shot that was followed by a layup by Hallie Mayfield about a minute later to give the Pirates an 18-13 lead.
A Catlyn Ward layup with 7:41 to go in the half would be all the scoring the Lady Jackets would get while Southwestern went on a massive run.
The Pirates then went on a 14-4 run over the majority of the second quarter with Emily Edwards collecting the first five points of the run followed by Hodges, Hallie Mayfield, Kaitlyn Atkinson and Keyser to put Southwestern on top 32-19 at the halftime break.
Southwestern would lead by as many as 14 early in the third quarter on a Hodges made basket with 6:30 remaining in the third before Ward converted on a three-point play with a layup and free throw at the 3:51 mark and Bria Neal made a layup 25 seconds later to pull HPU within nine at 37-28.
The Pirates may not have shot the ball well from the field in the fourth quarter going just 2-for-13 with both makes being from long range, but the clutch shooting at the free throw line going 10-for-10 in the fourth and 14-for-14 for the entire second half would cause Southwestern to keep the Lady Jackets far enough away to where the game never got down to being a one or two possession contest.
The free throw shooting clinic the Pirates put on in the second half was a stark difference from the first half when they were merely 4-of-11 from the charity stripe.
HPU's Neal led all scorers and rebounders with 16 points and 12 boards.
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Southwestern will return to action after the Thanksgiving break when the Pirates host McMurry University on Saturday, Nov. 26. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. CST.
