Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners tip-off the 2016-17 campaign this weekend heading to Stephenville, Texas to take part in the Tarleton State TexAnn Classic. The Lady Miners will play the hosts Tarleton State on Friday evening at 5 p.m. and then will take on Cameron University at 12 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
S&T looks to build off its exhibition 68-66 win over Webster last Thursday. In that contest the Lady Miners had three players reach double figures in scoring led by
Maddie Raley (Haubstadt, Ind./Gibson Southern) with 16 while
Janie Arand (Washington, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) added 15 and
Raetchel Gray (Allen, Okla./Byng ) finished with 10 points.
Katey Brown (Craig, Neb./Guardian Angels Central Catholic), who made the game-winning shot against the Gorloks, dropped home eight points.
S&T is 28-14 all-time in season openers and have won 14 in a row and this will be the first time since the 2012-13 season it has begun a season on the road. This will be just the 16
th team the Lady Miners have begun the season on the road and are 5-10 in those contests.
Tarleton State split its two exhibition contests defeating Texas Wesleyan at home last Wednesday 67-63 and then traveled to Austin, Texas on Sunday to take on the Texas Longhorns where it was defeated 93-43.
Tiara Tatum led the TexAnns in scoring in the exhibition slate with 10 points per game while Bailey Wipff averaged eight points and Baylee Peck dropped in seven points per game respectively. Ikpeaku Iwobi led the team with six rebounds per game while Tatum dished out five assists in the two contests.
Tarleton State went 17-11, 10-6 in the Lone Star Conference and finished in a third place tie with Texas Woman's University. The TexAnns defeated Texas A&M-Commerce in the opening round of the Lone Star Conference Tournament before falling to West Texas A&M in the semifinals.
Tarleton is picked to finish fourth in the 11-team Lone Star Conference this season behind West Texas A&M, Angelo State and Texas Woman's.
Cameron went 15-11 last season and finished 9-7 in the Lone Star Conference losing to Texas Woman's in the opening round of the conference Tournament.
The Aggies return seven players and three starters off of last year's squad and were picked to finish sixth in the Lone Star Conference this season. Charron Montgomery is the team's returning leading scorer averaging 9.5 points per game and Natalie Halbleib dropped in 5.6 per contest.
Cameron dropped a 67-65 decision at Wichita State on Sunday in its lone exhibition contest of the season. Montgomery led the Aggies in scoring with 12 points while Savanna James dropped in 11 and Jamie Bonnarens finished with seven. James and Halbleid finished with nine rebounds each.
