CANYON, Texas (Feb. 4, 2017) - Texas Woman's University was unable to break a 36-year losing streak in Canyon to West Texas A&M as the Pioneers were defeated 80-55 by the Lady Buffs Saturday afternoon inside First Bank United Center.
 
The Pioneers (14-8, 7-7 LSC) suffered their worst defeat in three seasons, which fatefully was against WT Feb. 26, 2014, where TWU fell 96-66 to the third-ranked Lady Buffs in Canyon. The contest was a struggle offensively for the Pioneers, especially from the outside, as the team was successful on just one three-pointer to match a season-low, and attempted just seven from outside for the lowest output on the year. Defensively, WT's size presented a problem as the Lady Buffs were able to score over half of their points (44) in the paint. The one and only win for TWU in Canyon occurred on Jan. 14, 1981 in a 67-53 victory.
 
The Lady Buffs (17-6, 10-4 LSC) were able to neutralize Kenesha Saygo, the league's leading scorer at 18.4 points per game, to just nine this outing on five shot attempts. During the first matchup of the year, Saygo blistered WT with 28. Grace Mitchell totaled a team-high 12 points, and Emily Spector added 10.
 
The Pioneers stayed close within the first eight minutes trailing 11-9 behind seven straight TWU points from Alexis Nezianya, but WT went on an 19-4 run over the next eight minutes to cruise ahead 30-13. Bri'anna Gray came in off of the bench to provide an assist on a layup to Mitchell and collected a steal and bucket and the end of the second quarter to cut the deficit to 34-19 heading into the half.
 
The Lady Buffs opened the third quarter by hitting their first four shots to go up 42-23. Desiree Phipps knocked down a stepback three from the top to cut the lead to 48-32 with three minutes remaining in the period. Saygo scored her third and final field goal in the fourth with 3:39 to play to cut the lead to 20.
 
The Pioneers make the long trip to New Mexico next week to face Eastern N.M. Thursday at 7 p.m. CST and Western N.M. Saturday at 2 p.m. CST.