Southland Conference Women's Basketball Weekend Update
Lamar edges Northwestern State in overtime thriller, 80-77
NATCHITOCHES, La. - Trashanna Smith chose the right time to have the best game of her career, as the sophomore forward had career-highs of 21 points and 22 rebounds to lead the Lamar University women's basketball team to a 80-77 overtime win over Northwestern State at Prather Coliseum.
The Lady Cardinals improve to 18-7 overall and 9-3 in Southland Conference play with the win, while snapping the Lady Demons 17-game home winning streak, which was tied for fifth-best in the NCAA. Northwestern State falls to 15-10 on the year and 7-5 in SLC play with the loss.
For the second straight game the Lady Cardinals used clutch shooting on their last offensive possession to force overtime. Darika Hill, who was Wednesday night's hero, drained a three pointer with 32 seconds to play to tie the game at 66-66 forcing the extra period.
Lamar opened the overtime with an 8-0 run during the first 4:05, but the Lady Demons refused to let their home winning streak go down without a fight. Northwestern responded in the final 55 seconds with an 11-4 run to get within one point with three seconds to play.
After the Lady Demons fouled Nikki Williams with two ticks remaining on the clock the senior guard calmly stepped to the free throw line and knocked down both freebies to give Lamar the three point advantage.
Northwestern State's final attempt from the field was a half court heave by point guard Demetria White which fell short of the rim as the buzzer sounded.
In the first half the Lady Cardinals took and early 5-0 lead, but the home team used a strong performance to open as much as an eight point advantage at 29-21 with 3:35 to play. Lamar used a 12-3 run of their own in the final three minutes to take a 33-32 lead, but a pair of White free throws with six seconds to play gave Northwestern a one point advantage at halftime.
For the game the Lady Cardinals post players dominated Northwestern State, led by Smith who poured in the 21 points and 22 rebounds. The 22 boards tied a Prather Coliseum record for rebounds by a single player, while she is the first LU player to grab 20 or more rebounds since March 2, 1993 when Travesa Gant hauled in 21 rebounds at South Alabama. It also ties for the fourth-most boards in a game by a Lady Cards player, tying her with Carolyn Ford and Kara Audrey.
Hill and Brittney Williams also dominated offensively for Lamar, scoring 18 and 14 points respectively. Nikki Williams finished the game with 12 points, eight of which came in overtime.
As a team the Lady Cards finished with a 45.3 percent shooting performance, while Northwestern State shot 41.4 percent from the field. Lamar also owned the glass, out rebounding the Lady Demons 45 to 34.
Ladyjacks hold off late Southeastern rally in battle of East Division leaders
HAMMOND, La. - Junior Whitney Cormier buried a three-pointer with 18 seconds remaining to give Stephen F. Austin a four-point lead, and eventually the victory over Southeastern Louisiana. The Ladyjacks watched an 18-point second half lead get trimmed to one, but held on for a 63-58 victory over SLU in Hammond, La., Saturday afternoon.
The Ladyjacks jumped to an 11-point lead, 14-3, after knocking down their first six field goal attempts. While SFA started quickly the Ladyjacks missed 6-of-their-first-seven attempts. The Ladyjacks pushed their advantage to as many as 16 points in the opening half.
SFA connected on 12-of-26 (46.2 percent) in the first half, while holding the Lady Lions to only seven field goals. Southeastern Louisiana shot 21 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes, and connected on only one three-pointer, 1-of-12. SFA took a 13-point lead into the locker room.
SFA hit 3-of-its-first-5 to build an 18-point second-half lead, 42-24, with 14:40 remaining. The Ladyjacks appeared to cruising to an easy victory, but the Lady Lions mounted a huge rally late in the game. SLU rattled off a 14-2 in the final 6:30 minutes to cut the lead to one, 58-57, with only 45 seconds remaining, but that's when the Cormier stepped up to play the role of hero.
Cormier buried the three, and also tacked on two free throws for the final score. Cormier finished the game with 18 points, while freshman Tammara Marion added 12 points. Sophomore Jordan Ford knocked down her first three attempts of the season, and finished the game with 10 points. Kristy Carlin led SLU with 15 points.
The Ladyjacks finished the game 23-of-53 (43.4 percent) from the floor, while the Lady Lions were 20-of-65 (30.8 percent). SLU out-rebounded the Ladyjacks, 47-44.
Bolden sets Central Arkansas’ three-point record in loss to UT Arlington
CONWAY, Ark. ? Carnisha Bolden set a Central Arkansas record by making eight 3-pointers en route to a career high 24 points on Saturday, but not much else went right for the Sugar Bears as they fell 98-69 to Southland Conference leader UT Arlington at the Farris Center.
The Mavs (16-9, 10-2 SLC) got 25 points and 22 rebounds from center Candice Champion, and all five UTA starters reached double figures as the Mavs cruised to their third straight win over the Sugar Bears (6-19, 2-10).
"They've just got more thoroughbreds than we do," UCA head coach Matt Daniel said. "We tried to speed up the tempo and get into their bench. But we got tired, and we played everybody on the bench. We've just got to get better. That's why we spend so much time recruiting when we're not in the gym. UT Arlington is the perfect model of the kind of program we'd like to have."
Tamara Simmons had 20 rebounds and a game-high seven assists for UTA, and Meghan Nelson scored 15, Erin Dixon added 14 and Shalyn Martin 10 as the Mavs built a 12-point halftime lead, 51-39, and stretched it further by outscoring UCA 47-30 in the second half.
Bolden's 24 points and 14 from freshman guard Marci Moffitt led the Sugar Bears, who got 54 of their 69 points from their reserves. Jamye Adair and Nakeia Guiden each had six to lead UCA's starting five, with Chorcelle Taylor getting two, Laura Beth Anderson one and Destinee Rogers ? the team's leading scorer ? going without a single point in 28 minutes of play.
"The bench came up big and gave us a lift," Daniel said. "And thank heaven for that, or it would've been an even bigger spread than it was. That's the second time we've had a kid tie or break the 3-point record in a game this year, so that sort of gives you a sense of how we'd like to play and how we're going to play in the future."
Bolden connected on her first eight attempts from beyond the arc to break the record that was tied earlier this season by Rogers. She had a final attempt to extend the record, but missed and finished the game 8-for-11 from the field. Her 24 points doubled her previous career high of 12.
UTA dominated in the paint, outscoring UCA 56-18 and winning the rebounding battle 55-28, with 22 offensive rebounds resulting in 25 second-chance points for the Mavs.
Texas State holds off Nicholls State, 70-58
THIBODAUX, La. - Texas State walked away with its second road win of the season Saturday afternoon, taking a 70-58 win from the Nicholls Lady Colonels at Stopher Gymnasium.
The Bobcats move to 11-13 on the season and 5-7 in Southland Conference play, while Nicholls falls to 1-22 overall and 1-11 in the league. Senior Ashley Cole made her first start since Jan. 14 and led the Bobcats with 16 points. Gabriell Mattox chipped in 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds in the winning effort.
Christie Bryant led Nicholls' charge with 18 points and six rebounds.
Texas State trudged through the first few minutes of action to open the game and it was Nicholls that put the first points on the board with an easy layup from Dominique Washington. But Kim Cessna took two-straight possessions away from the Lady Colonels and a pair of fast break layups followed to put the Bobcats ahead.
Nicholls did not go quietly and the next five minutes took almost 20 minutes to play out with each team taking on its share of turnovers. Texas State owned 17 turnovers by the close of the half, while NSU had 14.
It wasn't until 13:50 that Texas State would move ahead 8-6 over the host. The Bobcats paced picked up shortly after and a 10-3 run fueled the team coming out of a media timeout to split the score evenly, 18-9. NSU broke into double-digits with a jumper from Washington in the midst of an 8-6 run, but 15 points would be all Texas State would allow in the first half. The Bobcats finished off the first stanza with an 8-0 run, taking a 34-15 at halftime.
The Lady Colonels 15 points at the break marked the lowest halftime tally by an opponent this season.
Coming back from the half, Nicholls countered Texas State's 16 points with 11 of their own before taking a four-minute spread and breaking away with a 15-5 run. A pair of fast break layups from Nadia Cox and six points from Bryant motivated the foe and at 7:07 the Lady Colonels came within 11 points, its closest margin of the game.
Nicholls reached the mark again, down 66-50 when Tiffany Jones drained a long-range three and tacked on a pair of free throws on the next possession to bring the score to 66-55 with just over two minutes to play.
Both teams racked up a combined 52 turnovers, breaking a Texas State combined record for most turnovers in a game set this season with 51 against Paul Quinn College. The Bobcats alone recorded 31 turnovers, its highest tally this season.
Texas State led on the boards, 45-33 and held a 30-11 margin for bench points. Nicholls led with points in the paint, finishing 34-30.
Cowgirls take down Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
LAKE CHARLES, La. -- McNeese State's women's basketball team picked up its second consecutive Southland Conference victory in as many games with a 68-54 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi here Saturday at Burton Coliseum.
Senior Shante' Perry led a trio of McNeese players who scored in double figures with 19. Perry also led the Cowgirls with nine rebounds. Perry was 7 of 18 from the field including three treys in 26 minutes. Kendra Wells added 13 points and was 4 of 9 from the field and five of six from the charity stripe. Wells was second on the team with six rebounds.
Ashlyn Baggett closed out the double figure scoring for the Cowgirls with 12 points. Baggett was 4-of-11 from the field, three field goals came from behind the arc. A big plus for the Cowgirls today was that 12 players saw playing time.
McNeese scored 24 points in the paint and scored 21 off 20 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi turnovers and got 34 points from the bench.
Both teams got off to a slow start in the first half but the Cowgirls went into the locker room with a 22-19 halftime lead.
McNeese began the second half on a 25-5 run to hold its largest lead of the game at 47-24 with 11:01 left in the game. After a bucket by the Islanders, Wells hit a layup to put the lead back to 23. Texas A&M-CC would cut the Cowgirl lead to eight (57-49) with 3:09 left but another scoring outburst by the Cowgirls would hold off the Islanders to improve to 12-13 overall and 4-8 in the SLC. The loss dropped the Islanders to 11-14 overall and 5-7 in the SLC.
McNeese ended the game shooting 31.9 percent from the field (15-47), 43.8 percent from three-point land and 77.3 percent from the free throw line. McNeese also tied its season low with seven turnovers. McNeese was credited with 12 steals and freshman guard Brooke Froeba led the Cowgirls with three.
UTSA holds court, hands Sam Houston State 85-54 defeat
SAN ANTONIO, Texas ? Senior forward Onika Anderson grabbed 23 rebounds, the second-most in school history, and added a game-high 19 points for her league-leading 11th double-double of the season and UTSA blew past Sam Houston State, 85-54, on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
Anderson's rebounding performance was one shy of tying Margaret Martinovich's single-game record of 24 set against Texas A&M-Kingsville on Nov. 27, 1981.
The Roadrunners (17-8, 10-2 SLC) finished the contest with 60 boards, their most ever in a Southland Conference tilt, and it led to 44 points in the paint. The victory also was UTSA's 16th in a row against the Bearkats (7-18, 4-8 SLC).
Senior forward Ryba Pawlaczyk reached double-digits for the second game in a row with 18 points, while senior guard Monica Gibbs chipped in with 17 and she also handed out a game-best eight assists to go along with seven rebounds.
UTSA opened the second half with a 10-7 spurt for the 59-27 advantage with 12:13 to go. Britni Martin’s basket cut Sam Houston's deficit to 22 (57-34) a minute later, but that would be the closest it would get the rest of the way. The Roadrunners went on to push their lead to 35 when senior guard Andrea Garcia connected on a jumper from the free throw line.
UTSA built a 14-4 lead within the first four minutes of the game, as Anderson led the charge with six points. The Roadrunners then put together a 10-3 run to increase their lead 24-7 over the next three minutes and capped off the hot start with a 13-8 stretch for a 47-20 halftime lead.
Martin paced Sam Houston State with a team-high 16 points.