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CANYON, Texas – The #2 Lady Buffs return to Lone Star Conference action this Thursday night as they head to San Angelo, Texas to take on the rival Belles of Angelo State with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m. CT at Stephen Arena inside of the Junell Center.
 
ANGELO STATE
Angelo State is guided by first year head coach Renae Shippy who was announced as the 11th head coach in program history back on April 24th. She served the previous two seasons as ASU's top assistant, Shippy played collegiately at Central Missouri.
 
The Belles enter the weekend with an overall record of 8-4 with a 3-3 mark in Lone Star Conference play following a 78-74 loss at Texas A&M-Commerce last Saturday afternoon. Angelo State is coming off of a run to the 2016-17 South Central Regional Finals last season as they finished the season at 26-6 with a 15-4 mark in LSC play.
 
De'Anira Moore leads the way offensively for the Belles as the sophomore forward has gone 54-of-112 from the floor including 61-of-81 from the free throw line to average 14.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game while blocking 35 shots.
 
WBCA DIVISION II TOP-25 POLL
The Lady Buffs remain number two in the newest Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division II Top-25 Poll announced on Tuesday afternoon by the association's offices in Luling, Georgia.
 
Ashland (15-0) picked up all 24 possible first place votes for a total of 600 points followed by West Texas A&M (570), Indiana, Pa. (535), Carson Newman (517), Lubbock Christian (496), Alaska Anchorage (470), Bentley (443), Drury (435), Virginia Union (423) and California, Pa. (397) to round out the top ten. The South Central Region was represented by WT (2nd), Lubbock Christian (5th) and Fort Lewis (13th).
 
STAYING UNBEATEN
The Lady Buffs have started off the 2017-18 campaign with a perfect record of 14-0. It marks the third time in the last five seasons that the Lady Buffs have won atleast their first seven contest, the 2015-16 team won their first 15 contests on the way to the South Central Regional Finals. The Lady Buffs are one of just six women's basketball teams in DII with an unbeaten record. The 14-0 start to this season is the third best start to a campaign in program history behind the 2015-16 squad (15-0) and the 1987-88 Lady Buffs (33-0) who fell in the Division II National Title Game with an overall record of 33-1.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Entering the week, the Lady Buffs rank second in field goal percentage (50.5%) while ranking second in scoring defense (51.1/game), fourth in field goal percentage defense (32.9%), sixth in assists per game (19.8) and ninth in rebounding margin (+10.0). WT also ranks in the Top-20 in total assists (11th, 277), scoring margin (11th, +21.4) and 3-PT field goal defense (18th, 25.4%). Junior guard Megan Gambe ranks eighth in the nation in assist to turnover ratio (2.76) while Lexy Hightower is 34th in 3-PT field goal percentage (43.4%).
 
WT IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
The Lady Buffs enter the 2017-1 campaign with an overall record of 35-23 in the NCAA Tournament with the 35 wins ranking sixth-most all-time in NCAA Division II and ranks fourth-most among active DII institutions. In the four-straight NCAA tournament appearances for WT, the Lady Buffs are 13-4 during the stretch.
 
WINNING TRADITION
The 2016-17 season marked the fifth-straight year of 20 or more wins for the Lady Buffs. WT has won 30 or more games in 2013-14 and 2014-15 and have 30 wins in six seasons since 1980-81. The Lady Buffs have not had a losing season since 1980-81 and have won 20 or more games in 28 seasons during that span with a string of nine-straight from 1983-1992.
 
Since the 2012-13 season, WT is 136-31 (.818) with four NCAA postseason appearances, a national runner-up finish (2014), three Elite Eight trips (2014, 2015, 2017) and an NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance (2016). In the Lone Star Conference, the Lady Buffs have been just as successful with three LSC regular season titles (2014-2016), two Lone Star Conference Tournament Championships (2014, 2015) and four trips to the LSC Championship game.
 
LSC ACADEMIC TEAM CHAMPIONS
During the 2016-17 campaign, the Lady Buffs tallied a 3.568 grade-point average to lead all 11 LSC women's basketball programs. Sophomore Reagan Haynes won the prestigious Elite 90 Award, which is awarded to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the national championship site, as the Lady Buffs earned their third Elite Eight berth in the last four years in 2016-17.  In Mattio's first season at the helm of the Lady Buffs in 2015-16, the squad tallied a 3.53 GPA.
 
LSC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PRESEASON POLL
The Lady Buffs picked up 11 of the possible 31 first place votes to sit atop of the poll with 301 points. Defending LSC Champion Eastern New Mexico grabbed seven first place votes (280) to sit second followed by reigning LSC Tournament Champion Tarleton State with 270 points and three first place votes. Angelo State sits fourth with four first place votes (267) followed by Texas A&M-Commerce (six first place, 260), Texas Woman's (172), Cameron (145), Texas A&M-Kingsville (121), Midwestern State (120), UT Permian Basin (63) and Western New Mexico (47).
 
Mackenzie Hailey of Tarleton State was named the league's Preseason Player of the Year. The Burleson, Texas native transferred to Tarleton from UT-Arlington prior to the 2016-17 season, she was tabbed the league's Newcomer of the Year and a Second Team All-LSC selection as a freshman while averaging 16.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per contest while finishing the season with 13 double-doubles.
 
Lone Star Conference Women's Basketball expanded to 11 basketball-playing institutions prior to 2016-17 Western New Mexico (Silver City, New Mexico) and UT Permian Basin (Odessa, Texas) joined the league. Each team will play a double round-robin conference schedule with 20 conference games. For the first time, Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco will host the LSC Basketball Championships on March 1-4.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The Angelo State Communications Department will provide live stats and a webstream for the Thursday night's matchup in San Angelo. For more information or links, visit the Lady Buff Basketball schedule page at GoBuffsGo.com.
 
THE LONE STAR CONFERENCE
Entering the week, LSC women's teams were 72-74 overall. The women's squads are 19-17 combined against the Heartland, and 10-12 versus RMAC teams, which are the other conferences in the NCAA South Central Region.
 
Offensive Player of the Week - McKinley Bostad TSU)
Bostad, a junior from Kennedale, scored in double figures in all three games over the last week and led the team with 14.3 points per game while shooting .444 from the floor, .538 from beyond the arc, and .923 at the free throw line. Her week began with a 16-point performance against Southeastern Oklahoma to close out the 2017 calendar year. She followed up with 14 points in 26 minutes to lead Tarleton to a 72-56 rout of Angelo State to open the new campaign and then turned in a near non-traditional double-double with 13 points and nine assists in a 60-43 win against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
 
Defensive Player of the Week - Mackenzie Hailey (TSU)
Hailey led the team with 28 rebounds in three games, including 19 on the defensive end, and boasted back-to-back double-doubles to lead Tarleton to a pair of Lone Star Conference wins against Angelo State and Texas A&M-Kingsville. Hailey opened the new calendar year with a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds to lead Tarleton past Angelo State and followed up with a 15-point, 11-rebound effort in Tarleton's best defensive showing the of the season.
 
CAMERON RECAP
The #2 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M started out the game on a 14-4 run and never looked back as they remained unbeaten with a 70-49 Lone Star Conference victory over the visiting Cameron Aggies.
 
West Texas A&M was led offensively by Lexy Hightower who went 5-of-10 from the floor and 8-of-10 from the free throw line with a game high 18 points followed by Deleyah Harris with 11 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double, Tiana Parker swatted away four blocks in the win. WT finished the game going 22-of-53 (41.5%) from the floor including 2-of-12 (16.7%) from deep and 24-of-38 (63.2%) from the free throw line with 53 rebounds (16 offensive, 37 defensive), 17 assists, 20 turnovers, five blocks and eight steals on the afternoon.