Senior captain Kiara Wright’s career–high 39 points helped drive the No. 17 TexAnns past Eastern New Mexico University in Wisdom Gym Saturday night. The victory put Tarleton State University back in the win column.

Wright had a 13-13 shooting effort from the floor, and was 13-20 shooting at the free throw line. She complimented her third 30-point game of the season with 16 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season and 49th in her career.

The dominating performance gave Wright 1,430 career points, bringing her just 10 points shy of tying Misty Wilson, her current coach, for sixth all-time and second all-time in Tarleton’s NCAA scoring history.

Tarleton did not start out the game strong as Eastern New Mexico began with a 23-12 run in the first 6:42 of the game. Shanae Lowrance then made two straight free throws to flip the script back to the TexAnns.

The free throws started a 14-2 Tarleton run giving the TexAnns a 27-26 lead with 8:27 left in the game. The Zias then came back to reclaim a small lead never exceeding four points.

The TexAnns came back to tie the game at 33-33 followed by Meagan O’Dell knocking down a 3-pointer to take the lead and start an 11-8 Tarleton run. Tarleton ended the first half with a 44-41 lead.

Starting the second half, the TexAnns held on to their three point lead at 55-52 with 14:59 left in the game.

Wright responded with a layup to start an 8-0 run giving Tarleton a big 63-52 lead.  The TexAnns were able to extend the lead to 18 points, with a final 89-71 lead over  Eastern New Mexico.

Bledsoe and Kathy Thomas each had 12 points while Lowrance added seven. O’Dell added 6, Karli Moore had 5 and Raven McGrath added 4 from the bench. Morgan Ashmore rounded out the score with 2 points.

Tarleton out-rebounded the Zias 41-32 and outscored ENMU down low 44-30. The TexAnns also had 17 points off 13 ENMU turnovers while holding the Zias to no points off only eight Tarleton turnovers.

The TexAnns will be back with two games next weekend, hosting Texas A&M-Commerce Saturday, Feb. 1 at 5 p.m. and then heading to Texas Woman’s University Sunday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m.