With the Incarnate Word women’s basketball team in first place in the Heartland Conference, every game is important.
Sitting on top of the Heartland with an 8-1 record, one slip up could knock the Cardinals back into a tie with rival St. Mary’s University, who are slithering behind UIW at 7-2, with one of those victories being Incarnate Word’s lone loss of the season.
But another event has the next few games for the UIW women at home buzzing with more excitement than just a first-place team can generate: Senior guard Nia Torru is just 23 points away from becoming the all-time leading scorer in Cardinals history.
Torru, a Houston native, started the year sitting in third place, all time, in scoring at UIW with 1,354 points after a 545-point effort last year as a junior (her previous seasons, she had scored 403 and 406 as a freshman and sophomore, respectively. Her 545 is another UIW record). So far, she has dropped 263 on opponents for a career-total of 1,617 and is now sitting in second place all time.
Incarnate Word’s all-time leading scorer is Amy Mueller, who accumulated 1,639 points over her four-year career from 2001 to 2005. Mueller scored point-totals of 404, 400, 414 and 421 and played in 110 games. Torru has gotten her 1,617 in 107 games.
UIW is expecting Torru to break the record sometime during the Cardinals’ four-game home stand over the next two weeks – and possibly this week against either Oklahoma Panhandle State on Thursday (5:30 p.m.) or Texas-Permian Basin on Saturday (2 p.m.).
Panhandle is currently sitting on a 6-13 overall record and a 3-5 conference mark, while UTPB is 11-9 overall and 5-3 in conference play. The Aggies are surrendering 64.6 points-per-game to opponents while the Falcons are giving up 67.8. Torru scored 11 points against OKPSU in the teams’ first meeting, but was held to a meager 5 points against Texas-Permian Basin in Odessa.
When she does break the record, a moment of recognition will be taken for the crowd to acknowledge her achievement as the best scorer in University of the Incarnate Word women’s basketball history.