Ft. Worth, Texas – The Oklahoma Panhandle State University women's basketball team came up short in its comeback bid in the regular season finale, falling at Texas Wesleyan University, 66-56. The Aggies finished the regular season with a mark of 14-14 overall and 10-12 in the Sooner Athletic Conference, while the Lady Rams improved to 14-16, 12-10 in the SAC.
 
The loss locked Panhandle State into the No. 8-seed for the SAC tournament and a date at top-seeded Oklahoma City University on Tuesday (Feb. 26) for its first-round game. It will be the first trip to a conference post-season tourney for the Aggies since 2006.
 
The host Lady Rams got out of the gate fast thanks to three treys from Lexi Burns in the opening three minutes. But the OPSU squad used some deft long range shooting of its own to climb back into the game after trailing by as much as 11 points in the second quarter. The Aggies' Monti Regier canned 3-of-5 from beyond the arc in the first half, helping her team narrow the gap to 30-29 with 3:22 remaining in the period, despite going the first four minutes of the second without a field goal.
 
The Aggies faced another scoring drought to close the period. The Lady Rams closed the half on a 9-0 run to lead at the intermission, 39-29. Unfortunately for the visitors, the lid remained on the bucket for the first 4 ½ minutes of the third period, as well, elongating the TWU streak to a 19-0 run and upping the Aggies' deficit to 20 points, 49-29. A layup by Hannah Bennett finally got Panhandle back on the board, 49-31, at the 5:29 mark.
 
After three quarters, the Aggies found themselves down by 20 points (56-36), after trailing TWU by as many as 25 points with 2:31 left in the stanza (56-31).
 
Panhandle had one last run in it to open the fourth quarter. With 2:16 left to play in the contest, OPSU had whittled the margin down to single digits – 62-54 – on a put-back layup by Nadia Hayes, forcing a Lady Rams' timeout in an effort to stem the 23-6 run by the Aggies since TWU's biggest lead. Unfortunately for the Aggies, they would get no closer as the final two minutes expired and the Lady Rams survived the furious OPSU finish.
 
Addison Munsch led the Aggies by registering her fifth double-double game of the season. Munsch tallied 16 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. She shot a creditable 7-for-13 from the floor and also had three assists.
 
Monti Regier finished the afternoon with 12 points – all in the first half- and going 3-for-9 from beyond the arc. Shambri Kelso also finished with a trio of treys, good for nine points in the book. Kelso grabbed five boards and had a team-leading four steals, several of the thefts coming in the fourth quarter when the Aggies forced TWU into seven turnovers.
 
Hayes chipped in seven rebounds and six points. Hannah Faulks had four points and Taylor Acosta three.  Kaylee Morgan, Naomi Rodriguez and Hannah Bennett had two points, apiece, to round out the OPSU scoring.