Balanced Attack Fuels No. 6 Lamar to 62-52 Victory over No. 10 Houston Baptist
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KATY, Texas – An impressive beginning allowed sixth seed Lamar to hold on to the end.
The Cardinals never trailed on their way to a 62-52 win over tenth seed Houston Baptist in a second-round game of the 2021 Hercules Tires Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament on Wednesday night at Leonard E. Merrell Center. With the victory, Lamar (9-17) advances to Thursday’s third round against No. 3 Sam Houston State.
Lamar sprinted to a 10-0 lead and held HBU scoreless the opening 5:27 of the contest. The Cardinals never took their foot off the gas as their swarming defense confused and rattled the Huskies, who shot just 30.8 percent (8-for-30) from the field in the first half.
“We knew in this game that Houston Baptist making shots would be a problem,” said Lamar coach Tic Price, whose team won its fourth straight. “We went into the game with a goal to try to hold them to 32 percent from the field, and I thought for the most part that we accomplished that. We held them to 33 percent, which is right about where we wanted to be.”
Taking advantage of an HBU (6-19) team that played on Tuesday night, Lamar ran at will from the outset, producing 12 fast break points in the first half while keeping the Huskies from generating their transition game.
“We felt like running transition since we were fresh and they played (Tuesday night) was key,” said Davion Buster, who scored a team-high 18 points. Fellow guard Kasen Harrison added 14 points for the Cardinals.
The Huskies’ shaky ball handling did not help their cause, committing 10 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, but the play of Pedro Castro and Zach Iyeyemi kept HBU within shouting distance after falling behind by as much as 19 in the first half.
Castro finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and five steals, while Iyeyemi added 15 points and 12 boards for the Huskies. Unfortunately, HBU could not find a third option as the duo combined to score 17 of the Huskies’ 21 field goals.
“We faced a lot of adversity tonight,” said Huskies coach Ron Cottrell, “but these guys never gave up. We just kept coming and kept coming.”
A balanced effort (seven players scored at least six points) was capped by a jumper from Avery Sullivan at the buzzer to give Lamar a 35-21 halftime edge.
Castro’s play began to carry over to the rest of HBU after halftime. The Huskies slowly crawled back into the contest and inched within 43-32 when Zach Iyeyemi tipped in a missed Brycen Long layup with 13:41 left. At that point, Castro and Iyeyemi had combined for 26 of the Huskies’ 32 points.
Just when it appeared the Cardinals were ready to put the Huskies away, Castro came through to keep HBU alive, this time on an alley-oop dunk from Myles Pierre that pushed the Huskies to 47-37 at the 9:12 mark of the second half.
HBU’s inability to find a third scoring option haunted them all night, especially in a second half in which Lamar’s offensive pace and efficiency slowed down. After the Castro dunk, the Huskies could not manage a point until Iyeyemi’s layup with 3:37 left, a scoring drought of 5:35.
The Huskies finally recorded a second half basket that didn’t come from either Castro or Iyeyemi when Jade Tse produced a conventional 3-point play that came with 3:30 remaining.
Sam Houston swept the regular season series against Lamar, producing a 96-71 win at home on January 13 and a 77-71 victory in Beaumont on February 22.