The Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s women’s basketball team is heading to Alexandria, Louisiana for their inaugural appearance in the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Jaguars finished their historic inaugural season Feb. 22 with a 76-66 win over Paul Quinn College Tigers finishing the season with a 14-10 conference record.
The win secured the Jaguars the fourth seed in the tournament.
The Red River Athletic Conference Tournament is a single elimination eight-team bracket. The tournament winner will get an invitation to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, or NAIA, Women’s Basketball National Championship.
“We’re just trying to fix minor things, that way we come fully ready, ready to play and do what we do,” said graduate Natalia Trevino.
The Jaguars are heading into the tournament with two of the top five players in points per game, or PPG, in the conference. Junior guard Evelyn Lorenzo is averaging 18.3 PPG, and Trevino is averaging 18.2 PPG.
Offense is not the only tactic in the Jaguars’ arsenal.
Trevino is third in the conference with 3.0 steals per game in contest and sophomore guard Victoria Adeniran averages 2.2 steals a game.
“It’s gonna come down to defense, and hustle and who wants it more,” Trevino said, “I believe this team wants it more than anybody else.”
Fourth seed A&M-San Antonio will face the fifth seed the Huston-Tillotson University Rams in the Red River Athletic Conference Quarterfinal Tournament.
The two teams have a brief history with each other having split their regular season meetings one apiece with their first meeting on Dec. 3, 2024.
In that game, the Jaguars secured a win in an overtime thriller with a final score of 84-81.
Overtime happens when the game is tied at the end of regulation and the game goes into an extra five-minute period.
The second matchup took place on Jan. 28 with the Rams getting the best of the Jaguars in a close game with a final score of 68-65.
“Ever since that last game at HT it’s just been on the back of my mind,” said freshman forward Emily Carranco, “I wasn’t hitting my shots.”
Carranco struggled in the contest shooting one for ten from a three-point range.
The Jaguars struggled with rebounding in both contests getting outrebounded in their first matchup 56-39 and 58-32 in their second matchup.
Junior forward Maya Simon was notably missing in the second matchup but will be active for the tournament.
Simon hit a last-minute three-pointer in the first matchup that sent the game into overtime.
“We played a game without Maya, and Maya is a big player for us,” said Trevino.
Simon is averaging 10.9 PPG and 1.8 steals per game.
The Jaguars are set to take on the number five seed, the Huston-Tillotson University Rams at 8:15 p.m. on Feb. 28 at the Laborde Earles Coliseum.
Click here to watch the Jaguars live as they face off against the Rams on Feb. 28.
