She’ll find out just how far tonight.
Making its third straight appearance in the American Southwest Conference Tournament, UMHB will open the three-day event against host Texas-Tyler at 8 p.m. today at Herrington Patriot Center.
The Lady Crusaders (14-11), the fourth seed from the West Division, lost 79-72 to the East top-seeded Lady Patriots (17-8) in their regular-season tilt on Dec. 15 in Tyler.
“We won’t watch very much film from that game because we just played so poorly,” Kirkpatrick said of the first meeting. “We’ll see some recent games they’ve played to see how they’ve changed, and we’ve changed a lot, too.
“We’ve come a long way. We know we need to shoot a little better and handle the ball a little better. But we feel pretty strongly that if we play as well as did the last three games, we’re going to win.”
That might sound odd considering the Lady Crusaders went 1-2 in their last three regular-season games. But the two losses came against West third seed Hardin-Simmons and No. 8-ranked second seed McMurry, and UMHB held the lead late in both games.
“Playing in the West really prepares you for the tournament style because when you play Hardin-Simmons, McMurry, (second-ranked) Howard Payne twice a year, there is no time to let down,” Kirkpatrick said. “And if Concordia was in the East, they would probably be in the tournament. Not to knock the East, because they have some great athletes, but the West is just so demanding.”
The Lady Crusaders are 3-4 all-time in four previous trips to the tournament. The winner of UMHB’s first-round game will advance to face the winner between McMurry and Texas-Dallas in a semifinal on Saturday. The championship game will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
NOTES: Live stats and video streaming of the women’s tournament can be accessed on the Web at uttyler.edu/athletics.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
