ABILENE, Texas –The Howard Payne women’s basketball team held a 10-point halftime advantage and went on to take an 83-73 victory over McMurry University Saturday afternoon at Kimbrell Arena in American Southwest Conference action.

Hope Hohertz scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Brittany Zamora scored 22 points and had eight assists to help lead the Lady Jackets to victory and ensure at least a second-place finish in the ASC West division. Katy Sarem added 10 points and six rebounds.

With two games to spare for both teams, McMurry falls to 11-8 in league play while HPU improves to 14-5 in conference play building a three-game lead over McMurry.

In the first half, HPU simply outshot McMurry and took a 40-30 advantage into the locker room at halftime. The Lady Jackets shot 15 of 28 from the floor and the defense held McMurry to a 9 of 26 effort.

Both teams had 10 turnovers in the opening period and HPU narrowly edged McMurry 17-16 in the rebounding category so the key difference was shooting percentage. Zamora had 10 points and five assists at half.

In the second half, McMurry matched the Lady Jackets point-for-point. Despite cutting the lead to four points with 4:50 to go, HPU stayed strong and held off the McMurry rally.

The Lady Jackets will finish out the regular season next week at home, hosting Concordia on Thursday and Mary Hardin-Baylor on Saturday.