SALINA, Kan. -- Elexis Martinez scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Bellevue University women's basketball team to their first win of the season, defeating Kansas Wesleyan University 77-54 in non-conference action on Tuesday evening at KWU's Mabee Arena.
The Bruins improve to 1-1 with the victory while Kansas Wesleyan, the reigning KCAC Champions, drop to 0-2.
Bellevue put Saturday's shooting woes behind them early, with Faith Ross and Laura Jurek hitting a pair of early treys on BU's first three attempts from deep for an early 8-5 lead. After a three-pointer from LaMyah Ricks gave KWU their first lead of the game with 2:02 to play, 15-14, Bellevue closed the quarter with a 7-2 run to take a 21-17 lead after one period of action.
Four-straight points from Elexis Martinez to open the second quarter pushed the Bruin lead to eight points and prompted the Coyotes to take a timeout as Bellevue opened the second quarter on an 8-0 run. After a layup from Caila Hill, Shareece Smith drained an elbow three to stretch the BU lead to 32-19 with 4:43 to play in the half.
The Coyotes regained their footing to trim the BU lead to single digits on a banked jumper by Amanda Hill but a layup at the other end from Martinez killed the momentum as Bellevue took a 39-28 lead into halftime.
Martinez led all players with 11 points at the break as nine Bruins found their way into the scoring column. Kelcey Hinz and Caila Hill paced KWU with six points apiece in the opening half.
The Bruins shot a scorching 58.3 percent in the half and drained 6-of-11 first half trifectas while the Coyotes hit at just a 32.3 percent clip, going 2-for-10 from three.
BU picked up where they left off out of the break with an 11-2 run. Martinez scored a transition layup between the first and second of Jamie Winkler's three treys during the spurt, to put the Bruins up by 20, 50-30.
The teams traded points the remainder of the quarter as Bellevue took a 63-42 lead into the fourth.
Kansas Wesleyan did not go quietly in the final quarter as the Coyotes rattled off five-straight points to cut the BU lead to 16, 63-47, before a Bruin timeout with 7:48 to play. However, KWU could not get closer than 15 the rest of the way as Bellevue saw out the victory.
Martinez led all players with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting and a 7-of-10 effort from the charity stripe. She was joined in double figures by Winkler and Ross with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Winkler led the Bruins with seven rebounds while Jurek added six boards to go along with a game-best six assists.
Bellevue hit 11-of-20 (55%) three-pointers and shot 49.1 (28-57) percent from the field while holding KWU to 33.9 (21-62) percent shooting and a 4-of-21 (19.1%) effort from deep.
Amanda Hill finished with a team-high 18 points and seven boards for the host Coyotes and Hinz added eight points to go along with a game-high 12 rebounds.
Bellevue hosts the BU Classic this coming weekend. The Bruins will tip-off against Midland University (1-0) on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. and College of St. Mary (0-0) at 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2.
