The Tarleton State University TexAnn basketball team headed to Allen, Texas and dominated from the first tip off. In the LSC Championship opener the No. 2 Tarleton team beat Texas A&M-Commerce in an impressive 84-55 victory.

“You have to give the players a lot of credit,” Head coach Ronnie Hearne said. “They were prepared mentally and really wanted to come to this tournament and show people what kind of team we really are.”

In a rematch of the TexAnns’ final regular season game on Saturday, where they lost 74-69 to Commerce, the Tarleton ladies kept the lead the entire game.

Within the first 20 seconds, Kiara Wright put the TexAnns on the board, and started an opening 12-0 run, with Wright adding 10 of those points and Shanae Lowrance adding two.

Tarleton eventually extended that first half lead to as much as 31-points, when they led by a score of 50-19 with 34 seconds left before the break.

In the first 20 minutes, the TexAnns outshot the Lions 63 percent to 29 percent and forced 14 turnovers. Wright had already racked up 14 points and Lowrance was also in double digits with 13.

In the second half both teams scored an even 34 points, but after the huge deficit put on Commerce in the first half, there was no way of coming back.

Wright led the team in scoring and rebounds with 18 and 13 respectively, recording her 57^th career double-double. Bledsoe also recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Also getting double-figures for the TexAnns were starters Lowrance with 13 and Kathy Thomas with 12, and coming off the bench Ikepaku Iwobi added 11. Rounding out the scoring for Tarleton was McGrath with seven, Travanti Downes with six while Meagan O’Dell and Keyra Johson both added two.

The LSC Championship Tournament is the next game up for the TexAnns on Friday at noon against the winner of the Texas Woman’s University and Texas A&M-Kingsville game.