KINGSVILLE, TEXAS – UT Tyler women's basketball picked up their first LSC win of the season on Saturday after a 69-56 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday afternoon on the road.
 
The Patriots leaned heavily on the performance of Hayley Cumming, who went for a career-high 27 points in just her ninth game of her collegiate career. The freshman from Mont Albert, Australia, went 9-for-14 from the field and 7-for-11 from deep while adding seven rebounds and a steal. Those seven three pointers are the second most in a single game in program history, trailing only the nine made by Lovisa Hevinder back in 2022 against Midwestern State.
 
Her day began quickly, as she scored the first 14 points for UT Tyler of the game over the first 7:18 of the first quarter to build a 14-8 lead. Mariah Neal would drop in a three pointer with 2:20 remaining, opening up the scoring for the rest of the team. That 17-9 lead after one would only stretch further in the second quarter as the Patriots found their stride offensively.
 
The Patriots began that quarter with a 7-3 run as Polina Latysheva and Leila Davis got into the scoring column. The Javelinas would rally, cutting the lead down to just six points, but the Patriots closed the half on a 12-7 run as Neal added in five points, Latysheva added a triple, and both Nikolina Vukcevic and Edit Merivirta added in layups.
 
A 10-0 run from the Javelinas kicked off the second half as the Patriots offense struggled to get rolling. However, they went back to the well, setting up Cumming on a 10-2 run as she buried another pair of three pointers to score each point in the run. Latysheva would add two late free throws, and suddenly the Patriots went right back up 11 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The Patriots had the answer to each Javelinas bucket to begin the final frame, getting a three pointer from KK Bass and two layups from Neal to maintain a double-digit lead. The final nails in the coffin came from a 12-2 run over less than 1:30 of gametime that stretched the lead out to 18 points as Cumming hit one more three pointer and Latysheva added five more points.
 
The Patriots shot a blistering 51% for the game and 45.8% from deep. They added a 22-7 points off turnover advantage, 26-22 points in the paint advantage, and a 21-18 bench points advantage.
 
Both Latysheva and Neal would join Cumming in double figures. Laysheva added 17 points on 6-for-12 shooting with three rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Neal went 4-for-5 from the field as she added three rebounds and four steals.
 
UT Tyler now heads home for their first LSC home matchup of the year as they host St. Edward's for Holiday Hoopla on December 13^th at 1 p.m. inside the Herrington Patriot Center.