Women's Basketball Tops Dallas, 63-54, in SCAC Championship Quarterfinals

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran Women's Basketball team took down University of Dallas, 63-54, Friday afternoon in the SCAC Tournament Quarterfinals inside Trinity University's Calgaard Gymnasium.

With the win, the No. 4-seeded Bulldogs secure a spot in Saturday's semifinal round where they'll meet up with rival No. 1 seeded and No.4/5-ranked Trinity. Tip-off is scheduled for 12 PM and will air on Trinity University's Tiger Network.

Texas Lutheran took a 19-7 lead after the first quarter and rode that lead into an 11-point, 30-19, lead at halftime.

The Crusaders trimmed the deficit to five points with 1:40 remaining in the game but were never able to overtake the Bulldogs who completed their wire-to-wire win Friday afternoon.

Sophomore Kailee Mulkey (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) paved the way for the Bulldogs with 18 points, seven rebounds, and four steals.

Freshman Lauren Sansano (San Antonio/FEAST) tallied 13 points - shooting 9-of-9 from the free throw line - and led the team with five assists. Sansano is now shooting 92.5-percent from the free throw line and is now has enough attempts to be eligible for NCAA leaderboards, making her second in all of NCAA Division-III in free throw percentage entering Saturday's contest; narrowly trailing Babson's Megan Bauman (92.7%). Freshman Davi'Yanna Jones (San Antonio/Stevens) and junior Tanyse Moehrig (Spring Branch/Smithson Valley) finished with 11 and seven points respectively.

TLU held a 22-9 advantage in bench points and 32-27 rebounding advantage in the contest.

The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 39.6-percent (19-of-48) from the field and 76.7-percent (23-of-30) from the charity stripe.

Dallas finished the game shooting 37-percent (17-of-46).

The Bulldogs now turn their attention to a Tigers team that earned a first round bye and enters Saturday's contest on a four-game winning streak. Trinity swept the regular season series with TLU. Texas Lutheran advances to the semifinal round for the fifth consecutive year and ninth time in program history. Top-seeded Trinity awaits TLU in the semifinals, setting up the seventh SCAC tournament matchup between the two. Trinity holds a 4-2 edge in those previous six matchups, including an 87-54 victory over the Bulldogs in the 2020 semifinals.

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