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CANYON, Texas – The #25 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M conclude their regular season home schedule on Saturday afternoon as they renew one of the top rivalries in Division II Basketball against the Belles of Angelo State with tipoff set for 2 p.m. at the First United Bank Center on Senior Day.
 
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 19-4 with a 14-3 mark in Lone Star Conference play following an 83-61 road win at UTPB to run their win streak to 11 games.
 
Marquita Daniels leads the way offensively for the Belles as the senior guard has gone 125-of-256 from the floor including 28-of-90 from behind the arc to average 14.9 points per game while De'Anira Moore averages 12.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest while registering an LSC leading 77 blocks.
 
WBCA DIVISION II TOP-25 POLL
The Lady Buffs remained number twenty-five 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 (24-0) picked up all 24 possible first place votes for a total of 600 points followed by Lubbock Christian (574), Carson Newman (549), Alaska Anchorage (498), Drury (460), Virginia Union (450), Southwestern Oklahoma State (440), Glenville State (413), Central Missouri (412) and Augustana (394) to round out the top ten. The South Central Region was represented by Lubbock Christian (2nd), WT (25th) and Colorado State-Pueblo (RV).
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Entering the week, the Lady Buffs rank second in the nation in field goal percentage (48.9%), third in field goal percentage defense (33.4%) and fourth in rebounding margin (+10.7) and scoring defense (52.9/game). WT also ranks in the Top-20 in scoring margin (13th, +17.4), assists per game (16th, 17.5), total assists (16th, 421), three point field goal percentage (18th, 36.8%) and blocked shots (116). Junior guard Megan Gamble ranks 17th in the nation in assist to turnover ratio (2.31) while Lexy Hightower is 11th in 3-PT field goal percentage (44.9%).
 
WT IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
The Lady Buffs improved to 35-23 all-time 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 2017-18 season marks the sixth-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 27 seasons during that span with a string of nine-straight from 1983-1992.
 
NCAA SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL RANKINGS (FEB. 14)
The #25 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M have been tabbed third in the initial NCAA Division II Women's Basketball South Central Regional Rankings announced on Wednesday afternoon by the association's headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.
 
Lubbock Christian sits atop of the rankings followed by Angelo State, West Texas A&M, Colorado State-Pueblo, Arkansas Fort Smith, MSU Denver, Fort Lewis, Tarleton State, Black Hills State and Texas A&M-Commerce. The top eight teams in the South Central Region will take part in the Regional Tournament taking place on March 9-12 at the top overall seed, the winners of the three conference tournaments (LSC, Heartland, RMAC) will receive an automatic bid into the postseason with the last five spots being filled by at-large selections.
 
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 West Texas A&M Athletic Communications Department will provide live stats and a webstream for Thursday's matchup in Canyon. 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 128-129 overall. The women's squads are currently 19-17 combined against the Heartland, and 10-12 versus RMAC teams.
 
Offensive Player of the Week - Lexy Hightower (WT)
Hightower continued to lead the high-powered Lady Buff offense this past week as they picked up Lone Star Conference road wins at Cameron and Midwestern State to move to 20-4 overall with a 12-4 mark in league play.  The Amarillo High School product went 16-of-30 from the floor including 6-of-12 from behind the arc and 8-of-10 from the charity stripe to average an incredible 23.0 points per contest to go along with 2.5 rebounds per game.  Saturday afternoon saw the sophomore guard register a career-high 27 points on the road in Wichita Falls as she went 9-of-17 from the floor and 5-of-8 from deep in a 78-67 victory.
 
Defensive Player of the Week - De'Anira Moore (ASU)
Moore was a force with a 14.0 rebounding average and 4.5 blocks per game. Her defensive presence help limit two of the top LSC teams to just 30.0 percent shooting and 52.0 points per game. The sophomore grabbed 17 rebounds in a win versus Texas A&M-Commerce and followed it up with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds against Tarleton State. She recorded 20 total defensive rebounds during the week and scored 12.5 points per game.
 
TEXAS A&M-KINGSVILLE RECAP
The #25 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M took a 23-point lead into the locker room for halftime and never looked back as they picked up their 18th straight victory over the Javelinas of Texas A&M-Kingsville, 74-58 on Thursday night during Lone Star Conference action in front of over 750 fans at the First United Bank Center.
 
West Texas A&M was led offensively by Sydney Walton who went 4-of-6 from the floor and 3-of-4 from deep to score 12 points followed by Lexy Hightower with 11 while Madison Parker and Cece Wooten registered nine each, Abby Spurgin led the way defensively with seven rebounds while Parker dished out six assists in the win. WT finished the game going 29-of-55 (52.7%) from the floor including 10-of-22 (45.5%) from deep and 6-of-11 (54.5%) from the charity stripe with 31 rebounds (10 offensive, 21 defensive), 23 assists, 16 turnovers, three blocks and 14 steals in the win.