ODESSA, Texas (December 11, 2025) – The University of Texas Permian Basin women's basketball team played in its first home conference game of the season on Thursday and outscored Texas A&M University-Kingsville by a margin of 40-26 in the second and third quarters en route to a 67-54 victory inside the Falcon Dome.
With the win, UTPB improves to 5-4 overall on the season and is now 2-1 in the Lone Star Conference. Just five days after defeating the team picked one spot behind them in the Lone Star Conference Preseason Poll by 23 points, the Falcons have now defeated the team picked one spot ahead of them in the Preseason Poll by 13 points.
TAMUK (0-7 overall, 0-3 LSC) won 18 games last year, tying its most wins in a single season since the 2000-01 season, and made it to the LSC Tournament and won a quarterfinal game for the first time since the 2016-17 season with an upset win over the No. 5-ranked team in the nation (UT Tyler). Contributing to the Javelinas' struggles so far this season is the fact that four of the seven teams that TAMUK has faced off with so far this year are either ranked in the top 25 or receiving votes in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) National Poll.
The last time these two teams played, Taysha Ruston put up an historic 38-performance for UTPB in an 87-79 victory inside the Falcon Dome last year. Their meeting this year was a very different ballgame.
UTPB shot 66.67 percent both from the field (10-15) and from three (4-6) in the second quarter, outscoring TAMUK 24-16 in the period. UTPB then shot 50 percent (7-14) from the field in the third quarter while holding the Javelinas to just 2-for-11 (18.18 percent) and outscoring them 16-10. In the end, UTPB finished above 50 percent shooting (52.1 percent) for the game for the first time this season, and tied its season-high with seven 3-pointers. The UTPB defense held TAMUK to just 10 points in the first quarter as well on just 4-for-15 (26.67 percent) shooting.
Jasmin Holt led UTPB with a season-high 16 points off the bench, shooting 6-for-9 from the field and 2-for-3 from three while adding six rebounds. She helped lead the Falcons to a 40-24 advantage in bench points.
Kenadi Rising was next with 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds. She has had double-digit points to go along with at least eight rebounds in all three conference games so far this season.
Juliet Esomchukwu and
Pa'Shawna Wheeler both added eight points for UTPB while
Jonesha Neal and
Madison Walters both had six points.
UTPB totaled 12 steals as a team, including four by Esomchukwu and three by Walters, and had 16 assists on 25 made field goals. Four players had at least three assists for the Falcons.
It was a rough start offensively for the Falcons, who trailed 10-3 and had move turnovers (7) than points (3) until a 3-pointer by Rising with just 1:16 left in the first quarter sparked a nice run to end the opening period for the Falcons. A fortunate deflection led to a layup by Holt just before the buzzer to wrap up a 7-0 run to end the quarter.
Tied at 10-10 after the first quarter, the Falcons' strong second-quarter performance started with a pair of steals and subsequent fastbreak layups, first by Walters to get the quarter started and then by Holt. That made it a 7-2 start to the second quarter and a 17-12 lead for UTPB just over a minute and a half in. Both teams would lead by as many as eight points in the first half, and it was an eight-point UTPB lead (34-26) at the break after Holt again scored just before the buzzer, this time with a 3-pointer. In just the second quarter, UTPB totaled nine points off turnovers while Holt scored seven points and
Mikalah Buckley notched four assists.
UTPB would lead the whole way in the second half and started the fourth quarter strong with a 4-for-4 start at the free throw line in the opening 70 seconds of the period. A jumper by Rising would stretch the Falcons' lead to 17 points (56-39) with seven minutes left to play as UTPB led by double digits for the entire fourth quarter.
UTPB Head Women's Basketball Coach
Rae Boothe, who is celebrating her 250th career win as a collegiate head basketball coach, spoke after the game and said, "It took us awhile to settle into the game and find a flow. The second quarter was our best of the game, and possibly the season. Kingsville closed the gap a few times in the second half, but our players did a good job responding well to their runs. Overall, it was a solid team win."
In the end, it was another strong defensive effort for the Falcons, who coming into the game boasted the third-best scoring defense in the LSC (41st in the nation) while holding opponents to 35.3 percent from the field (2nd in the LSC, 23rd in the nation) and 27.2 percent from three (fourth in the LSC).
Next up, the Falcons will play in their final conference game of 2025 as they host Texas A&M International University starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 13.
