Bulldogs Survive Pirates on Senior Day; Earn 4th 20-Win Season in Program History

SEGUIN, Texas -- Junior guard Kayla Presley (Kyle/San Marcos) turned in a career and game-high 23 points as Texas Lutheran took a 68-65 victory over Southwestern Friday night at Memorial Gymnasium.

With the win, Texas Lutheran earned their 20th of the season - a mark reached for just the fourth time in program history. Texas Lutheran reaches 20 wins for the first time since 2016-17 - a team in which assistant coach Krystal Schneider was a member of the staff.

Prior to Friday's game, TLU honored its three seniors: student coach Courtney Hesseltine (Sinton/Sinton), Tanyse Moehrig (Spring Branch/Smithson Valley) and Kailey Lacy (Pflugerville/Hendrickson).

Despite early shooting woes, TLU would lead 15-9 after the first period thanks to six points from Presley and four points from Sarahi Jones (Los Fresnos/Los Fresnos).

Texas Lutheran continued to struggle offensively - shooting 25% from the field in the second quarter - while Southwestern began to heat up, conversely shooting 66.7% in the second quarter but TLU would carry a narrow, 25-24 lead into the break.

As TLU would begin to wake up from their early funk, the Southwestern Pirates refused to go away quietly - outpacing the Bulldogs to take a two-point, 48-46, lead into the fourth quarter after leading the Bulldogs by as many as nine points in the period.

After heating up in the third, the Kayla Presley takeover went into full effect in the fourth. Presley would score ten of her 17 second half points in the fourth quarter, including six in the final five minutes. Senior Tanyse Moehrig would add four points in the fourth as the senior added an inside presence for the Bulldogs in the second half. Moehrig would finish with nine points, five rebounds, three assists, and three blocks on her senior night. In addition to her 23 points, Presley would grab a team-high seven rebounds. After making it a multiple possession game for a majority of the fourth, a timely three from Southwestern cut the TLU lead to three before Presley nailed two free throws with 22 seconds remaining to ice the game and seal the win.

Texas Lutheran concludes the regular season 20-5 with a 13-3 record in the SCAC and a firm lock in second place in the SCAC - matching the best finish under head Troy Patterson from the 2021-22 season. TLU turns its attention to the 2024 SCAC Tournament in Shreveport, Louisiana. With the second place finish, TLU has earned a first round bye and will face the winner of No. 3 seed Colorado College against the still to be determined No. 6 seed on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7 PM. All streaming and live stats links will be available at tlubulldogs.com.