SILVER CITY, N.M. (January 5, 2025) – The University of Texas Permian Basin women's basketball team outscored the Mustangs 24-7 in the second quarter, led by 20 at halftime, and finished off its opening weekend of the New year with an 83-54 win at Western New Mexico University on Sunday.

Taysha Rushton led all players with 18 points on 6-for-12 shooting from three and had three steals for the second game in a row, and Avalon Munoz scored a season-high 15 points while shooting a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line and adding seven assists, five rebounds and three steals.

Kamari Portalis and Nikki Green both added 12 points while Khiara Flugence finished with nine points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

In addition to improving to 8-5 overall, 6-1 in the Lone Star Conference is the Falcons' best start in the league since joining in 2016-17.

It was a slow start as UTPB had problems against WNMU's 1-3-1 zone in the first quarter and made just two of its first 11 shots of the game, both of which were 3-pointers by Rushton.

A pullup jumper for Rushton's third 3-pointer of the first quarter got the Falcons to within one (12-11), and then an and-one layup by Flugence on the next UTPB possession gave the Falcons a 14-12 lead in the final two minutes of the opening period.

11 of the Falcons' 15 shot attempts in the first quarter were 3-pointers, but Flugence did her part to keep giving UTPB chances with four offensive rebounds in the first 10 minutes.

Flugence then opened the scoring in the second quarter with a layup after a nice pass by Munoz, making it 18-13 Falcons. Green connected on a three to push the UTPB lead to eight points (21-13) on the next possession, and then the threes began to fall as Munoz, Mikalah Buckley and Morgan Helgesen all connected from long range to make it a 13-point game (30-17) with 4:15 remaining in the second quarter.

An old-fashioned three-point play by Portalis made it 33-17 with one and a half minutes left in the first half, and then Portalis came up with an easy layup with 30 seconds left before finding Makala Bingley in the corner for a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to help the Falcons double up the Mustangs 40-20 at the break.

UTPB made four of its first seven 3-point shots in the second quarter and finished 5-for-11, all while the disruptive defense held WNMU to just one made field goal in the period.

Rushton opened the scoring in the third quarter with her third 3-pointer of the game, and UTPB was able to keep its lead over 20 points for the remainder of the contest while scoring at least 21 points in each of the final three quarters.

Rushton had now made a combined 10 3-pointers during her first two games of 2025 while Flugence has averaged 13 rebounds throughout the two games.

In addition to the 3-point shooting by Rushton, the rebounding by Flugence and the point guard play by Munoz, one of the biggest individual difference makers in the game for UTPB was Portalis, who was able to use her speed to break down her defender and get to the rim to create for herself or her teammates.

The Falcons were also very effective from the free throw line, making each of their first 12 shots and finishing at a season-best 15-for-16 (93.8 percent) from the stripe.

"Today was another good team win with balanced scoring," said Head Coach Rae Boothe. "We started slow, but were able to respond well. On Thursday we shot very poor from the free throw line, but today was significantly better. We know that we need to be solid in every area with the tough competition we will see this upcoming week."

The Falcons return home this week to host Eastern New Mexico University at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, January 9.