March 4, 2009

Box Score

BEAUMONT - The Lamar University women's basketball team dropped the final home game of the 2008-09 season Wednesday night, falling to Texas A&M Corpus Christi 71-55 at the Montagne Center.

The loss drops the Lady Cardinals to 18-10 overall and 9-6 in Southland Conference play. Texas A&M Corpus Christi improves to 11-17 overall and 6-9 in SLC play with the win.

The Lady Cards took their only lead of the game on a Brittney Williams jumper 18:56 to play in the first half, but Corpus Christi quickly responded with four quick points to regain the lead 4-2. After a tie at 6-6 with 16:56 to play in the half the Islanders began to pull away over the next 10 minutes, building to a 12-point lead at 26-14.

Lamar closed to within seven points at 29-22, but Corpus carried a nine point advantage into halftime after a Shaye Montgomery layup gave them a 33-24 lead with 1:04 to play.

In the beginning of the second half the Lady cads closed the gap to two points at 33-31 with a 7-0 run to open the half, but it was as close as LU would get. The Islanders responded with a 13-5 run to get back up by double digits and never looked back.

Corpus built their lead to as much as 20 points on three occasions and was able to hold off several Lamar runs with timely three point shooting and strong post play. After Lamar got within 14 points with 2:21 to play, only two points were scored by either team in the closing two minutes, as TAMUCC got a pair on two Jade Davis free throws.

Brittney Williams led the Lady Cardinals with 20 points and Darika Hill added 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

As a team the Islanders out shot LU 47.5 percent to 40.7 percent and won the rebounding battle 43-27.

The Lady Cardinals will close out the regular season on Saturday at noon when they take on Nicholls State in Thibodaux, La.