TLU Women's Basketball Falls Just Short of Upset against Division-II St. Edward's

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran women's basketball team took it to Division-II opponent, St. Edward's, Thursday night, leading with one minute remaining, but ultimately fell to the Hilltoppers, 68-64. With the loss, the Bulldogs fall to 0-3 on the young season.

Freshman guard Lauren Sansano (San Antonio/FEAST) set a career-high in points in her young career against the Division-II Hilltoppers in the Bulldogs tough loss.

The game was tightly contested in the first quarter at the Recreation and Athletics Center on the campus of St. Edward's University as the Bulldogs and Hilltoppers traded the lead once and tied three times. The Hilltoppers started the game on a 7-0 run, but Texas Lutheran would steadily chip away to tie the game 10-all at the 5:31 mark as the teams would match points through the remainder of the quarter. Kailee Mulkey (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) led the Bulldogs offense with five points in the opening quarter.

Elexis Morado (Kingsville/Santa Gertrudis Academy) got the scoring started for the Bulldogs to start the second quarter with a three-pointer. The teams would trade baskets for the next four minutes, before St. Edward's would go on their best scoring run of the quarter, a 6-0 run, to take a four-point lead with two minutes remaining in the half. The Hilltoppers would take a three-point lead into the half.

Texas Lutheran would have its best shooting quarter of the season, shooting 45.6% for the quarter and taking their largest lead of the night, 47-42, with 1:48 remaining in the quarter. The Bulldogs would out score the Hilltoppers 20-15 in the quarter behind 11 points from Lauren Sansano.

The fourth quarter was back-and-forth as the Hilltoppers fought to avoid the upset in their home opener. The two teams would trade the lead three times and tie twice. Texas Lutheran would hold their final lead with 51 seconds remaining before a four-point play helped the Hilltoppers regain the lead that they would not relinquish in the closing seconds, narrowly avoiding the upset.

Sansano led TLU on offense with 24 points, making four of her five three-point attempts. Taylor Skurka (New Braunfels/Steele) joined Sansano in double-digits with 10 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Kailee Mulkey finished with nine points along with team-highs of nine rebounds, three assists, and five steals.

Texas Lutheran returns to Division-III competition on Saturday as they welcome the Lobos of Sul Ross State to Memorial Gymnasium for the 2022-23 home opener. Tip-off is set for 2 PM. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.