Victoria Hill was playing in front of family and her former high school coach at Genoa Central. It’s no exaggeration she made them proud, scoring 21 points in Texas A&M University-Texarkana’s first-ever win.
Hill also contributed 6 rebounds and 3 assists in helping the Eagles (1-1) beat Champion Christian University, 78-58. Longview graduate Heavunli Reese led the winners with 22 points, while Alexis Matheus of Trophy Club, Texas, added 11 points.
“I don’t want to sound greedy, but I feel horrible about the way we played; it was ugly,” said Texas A&M-Texarkana women’s coach Kevin Dobbs. “At this point I’ll take a win, and I’m not going to complain. We’ve got to be smarter, play better, and be more disciplined. We’ve got the players who can do some things, we just made some bad decisions.”
Hill ignited cold-shooting Eagles
TAMU-T shot a cold 27 percent in the first quarter, but still led 22-12. In the end the Eagles only converted 30 percent of their shots, and was 22 percent on 3-pointers (12 of 54).
The Eagles’ lead was 35-27 at halftime. Texarkana swishing four unanswered treys early in the third quarter to build a 19-point cushion. However, TAMU-T went scoreless the next four minutes, watching its lead slip to seven points.
Six-foot-2 Destiny Gonzalez sparked the Tigers’ comeback. She scored 23 points and pulled down a game-high 8 rebounds before fouling out midway into the fourth quarter.
“That girl could play D1 probably. We watched her score 41 points the other night,” said Dobbs. “Since we held her to 23, I guess that’s not too bad.”
Texarkana forced 18 turnovers, including 10 steals. Those were key figures as the Eagles pulled away for good in the final four minutes.
The Eagles next game will be Nov. 8 in Waxahachie, Texas, against third-ranked Oklahoma City University.