PINEVILLE, LA – The Howard Payne University women’s basketball team defeated Mississippi College 73-68 in the opening round of the 2010 American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament. 

Brittany Zamora finished with a team high 21 points followed by Hope Hohertz with 19. Elaine Hobbs had 10 along with eight rebounds. 

Howard Payne was 13 of 14 in the second half from the free-throw line and Mississippi College was just 8 of 13 for the game from the line. 

A Hope Hohertz hit a three-pointer with seconds remaining in the first half to give the Lady Jackets at 32-28 halftime lead. 
Hot shooting by Brittany Zamora helped open up a 9-point HPU lead to start the second. Mississippi College made a run to cut into the Lady Jacket lead. With great teamwork HPU extended their lead to12, 52-40 on a Hohertz layup with 10 minutes to play 

Great inside play by MC got them back to within 5, 62-57 with 3:35 left in the game. The Lady Jackets hit 7 of 8 free-throws down the stretch to win 73-68. 

Howard Payne improves to 21-5 on the year and Mississippi College falls to 19-7 to finish the season. The Lady Jackets will play the winner of Hardin-Simmons and Louisiana College at 4:30 pm on Saturday.