ODESSA, Texas (November 8, 2024) – Coming off its best season in program history, The University of Texas Permian Basin women's basketball team kicked off its 2024-25 season with a 63-53 victory over South Dakota Mines. It was the first day of the D2 Conference Challenge and it was the Falcons' first time hosting their season opener since the 2020-21 season.

It was the fourth win in a row for UTPB (1-0) over South Dakota Mines (0-1) and was the third year in a row the Falcons took down the Hardrockers in their season opener.

Newcomer and fifth-year player Taysha Rushton led the scoring for all players with 19 points. She was 6-for-15 from the floor and a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line while adding game-highs in assists (7) and steals (4).

Next was junior Khiara Flugence with 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting, followed by newcomer and graduate student Nikki Green with nine points and fellow graduate student Morgan Helgesen going 2-for-5 from 3-point range for six points.

Another graduate student, Avalon Munoz, was one of four Falcons to score four points, but was also the team's leading rebounder with nine.

It was not the greatest shooting in the season opener for both teams, but the UTPB defense did its work effectively by limiting the Hardrockers to just 33.9 percent shooting to go along with 28 turnovers.

UTPB had 14 steals on those 28 turnovers and had four players with at least three takeaways.

That led to a substantial 28-3 advantage in points off turnovers for the home team, including an 11-1 advantage in the fourth quarter.

The Falcons also led 18-7 in fastbreak points, including 11-0 in the final period.

After a made 3-pointer by Helgesen in the final moments of the first half made it 30-25 Falcons, UTPB led the entire way in the second half.

UTPB led by as many as 14 points (41-27) in the third quarter after the lone 3-pointer of the game by Rushton with 5:40 left in the period.

A 3-pointer by South Dakota Mines on the first possession of the fourth quarter got the Hardrockers to within five (44-39), and they would get to within five again (50-45) with under five minutes left to play.

Rushton found Green for a jumper on the next UTPB possession, and then a layup by Munoz with 3:15 remaining started a 9-0 UTPB run that included fastbreak layups by Rushton and Green and ended with a 3-pointer by Green to make it a 15-point ballgame (61-46) with less than a minute and a half left.

"It was a great team win," spoke UTPB Head Women's Basketball Coach Rae Boothe. "I'm really proud of our players on getting the first one. We stayed pretty composed when they made runs and kept those runs pretty short. South Dakota Mines is a good team with talented players, and they did a great job rebounding. Our players, however, did a great job on the defensive end, forcing 28 turnovers. We have some work to do securing the rebound and will work to clean that up before we play tomorrow."

Next up, UTPB will conclude the D2 Conference Challenge against No. 23 nationally-ranked Colorado Mesa University at 5 :30 p.m. on Saturday, November 9. Colorado Mesa fell by two points (80-78) against West Texas A&M University in the other game hosted at UTPB on Friday.