SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State women's basketball team increased its intensity in the second half to run away from St. Mary's 86-59 and gave head coach Kevin Baker his 300th career coach win on Sunday afternoon.
The Belles (6-1) shot 53.1-percent from the floor and hit seven 3-pointers while limiting St. Mary's to just 30.2-percent from the field. The Rattlers (6-2) committed 23 turnovers with ASU taking advantage by scoring 26 points. Angelo State out rebounded StMU 41-35 and scored 38 points in the paint compared to just 18 for the Rattlers. It is the second straight game ASU has hit over 50-percent from the field. The Belles are now 4-0 at home this seasons.
A total of 11 ASU players scored highlighted by Taylor Dorsey's career high 36 points on 15-of-22 shooting from the floor. She sank two 3-pointers and four free throws while grabbing five rebounds. The 36 points is tied for the seventh most in a single game in ASU history. Sharon Ballinger also scored 36 against Cameron on March 2, 2004. It is the most points by a Belle since Natalja Tsurbakova scored 38 against SWOSU in January of 2005. KeAnna Kelly contributed 10 points including a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter. Jasmine Prophet led the team with seven rebounds and added four points.
Tied at 34 at halftime, the Belles came out and held St. Mary's to just seven points in the third quarter. The Rattlers went 0-for-10 from the field and 0-for-4 from behind the arc. The only StMU's points came at the free throw line.
"We talked about not having to do anything special or different other than play a better form of our brand of basketball," ASU head women's basketball coach Kevin Baker said. "We felt if we did that we would be just fine. They made their mind up that they were going to be more aggressive and they did it."
ASU opened the half with a jumper from Brea Mitchell. The senior scored again seconds later after a steal from Kelly and Dorsey followed it up with a three pointer to take a quick seven point lead at 41-34. After a pair of free throws, Prophet hit a jumper to spark a 12-2 run to boost the lead to 53-37. Kelly sank both of her 3-pointers during the run. St. Mary's would hit three free throws over the final 3:56 as the Belles' lead swelled to 23 at 64-41 going into to the fourth quarter. ASU went 13-for-19 from the field in the third quarter and 4-for-5 from the 3-point line.
St. Mary's cut the deficit to 22 at 69-47 before a quick 8-0 run over the next minute pushed the lead back to 77-47. Dorsey made sure St. Mary's wouldn't get any closer by scoring all eight points during the run and 13 of the final 17 Belle points to make the final 86-59.
The Belles and Rattlers were tied at 34 at the break. St. Mary's was aided by six 3-pointers in the first half. After an 18-13 first quarter lead, ASU extended it to 11 on a Dorsey jumper to make it 31-20. St. Mary's Kealani Marquez sank a three to spark a 13-3 Rattler run to tie the game going into halftime.
The win gave Baker his 300th win overall. He has 78 in the collegiate ranks and 222 as a high school coach.
"I'm really proud of that I've been a head coach for 14 years out of the 22," Baker said. "It's a great accomplishment but the accomplishment is that I've been able to coach some really good players. I've coached some talented players with a lot of stops on the way. I'm proud of it because it has really been a journey for me. I've never made a shot or made a rebound so I really can't get too fired up about that. What it does say is that I have a really long resume and have been a lot of places. However, I'm glad it happened here and with this team."
ASU returns to action in a non-conference match on the road in Odessa against UTPB on Thursday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. before playing its final home game prior to the Christmas break on Saturday, Dec. 19 at 5 p.m.
ASU Women's Basketball vs St. Mary's 13Dec15 - Images by Angelo State University
