March 15, 2008

Box Score

KATY, Texas - The No. 4 seed Lamar University women's basketball team could not overcome a 21 point halftime deficit and fell to No. 3 UT-San Antonio 65-56 in the Southland Conference Tournament championship on Saturday afternoon at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.

The loss drops the Lady Cardinals to 19-13 on the year, while UTSA improves to 23-9 and will advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Trailing by 21 at halftime at 38-17 after shooting just 17.2 percent from the field in the first half, the Lady Cards opened the second half on a tear and refused to let UTSA coast to the championship. They ripped off a 14-3 run to begin the second half and had the gap closed to 10 at 41-31 with 15:11 to play in the game.

The Roadrunners responded with a 6-0 run of their own to build their lead back to 16 points with 12:27 to play, but Lamar refused to go away.

The Lady Cardinals again cut the lead to 10 points with 10 minutes to play, but could not close the gap to less than nine, while their defense was keeping the Roadrunners from finishing them off. San Antonio took an 11 point lead with 2:12 to play, which proved to be too much for LU to handle.

Despite the double digit hole the Lady Cards faced, they made one last ditch effort and pulling off the come from behind win.

Lamar scored on a jumper by Nikki Williams to cut the lead to eight with 1:13 to play and closed to within six points when Tamara Abalde sank two free throws with 1:07 to play. After UTSA sank a pair of free throws to go back up by eight, Williams made a layup to get it back to six, but the Roadrunners again knocked down a pair a free throws to go up by eight.

Williams then drained a three pointer from the top of the arc to pull LU to within five points at 61-56 with 17 seconds to play, but that was as close as they would get. San Antonio knocked down four free throws to close out the game and seal the 65-56 decision.

In the first half the Lady Cardinals struggled to get their offense going, making just two of their first 21 shots from the field. UTSA on the other hand was hot early, going 7-14 from behind the three point arc. With Lamar's offense unable to find its touch, they Roadrunners were able to build their lead to 21.

For the game the Lady Cardinals were led by Abalde's game-high 20 points, 14 of which came in the second half, while Williams added 16 points. Aida Bakhos had a strong performance on the boards, pulling down 12 rebounds.

As a team Lamar shot 32.9 percent from the field, sinking 19 of their 59 shots, while UTSA went 20-58 for a 34.5 shooting percentage. The roadrunners also won the rebounding battle, pulling down 45 boards to LU's 41.