Apache Ladies Stay Unbeaten in February with 72-62 Win Over Blinn

By Phil Hicks

BRENHAM, TX — The Apache Ladies stayed unbeaten in February, winning their sixth consecutive game with a 72-62 victory over Blinn on Saturday in a Region XIV women's basketball game at the Kruse Center.

Tyler Junior College improved to 17-10 overall and 8-3 in conference. The Lady Buccaneers fell to 21-6 and 8-3. It was the second victory over No. 24 Blinn (TJC won 64-51 on Feb. 1 in Tyler) this month.

Monica Bottley and Taler Thornton led TJC with 19 points, while Grace Ezebilo added 10 points.

Others scoring for the Apache Ladies were Clementina Odom (8), Da'Lonna Choice (5), Kamora Jackson (4), Kyra Anderson (4) and Brandy Jones (3).

Thornton had two 3-pointers with Choice adding one.

Tyler was 17 of 20 at the free throw line with Bottley 7 of 8  and Ezebilo (4 of 4), Thornton (3 of 3) and Choice (2 of 2) perfect at the line. 

Blinn led 34-30 at halftime, but TJC used a big third quarter (25-13) to take a 55-47 advantage heading into the fourth. Tyler then outscored the Lady Bucs 17-15 in the fourth for the win.

Thornton paced the Apache Ladies in the third with 11 points while in the fourth Bottley paced Tyler with eight points.

Jonesha Neal led the Lady Bucs with 18 points with Ja'Nya Thomas and Jasey Campbell, a freshman from Emory Rains, adding 16 and 10 points, respectively.

The Apache Ladies play host to No. 15 Trinity Valley (21-4, 9-2) on Wednesday. Tipoff for the battle for first place is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Wagstaff Gymnasium. On Jan. 25 in Athens, TVCC rallied to score a 70-66 overtime win over TJC.

Blinn is slated to play Panola in Carthage at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.