No. 5 Cardinals Soar Into Semifinals With 90-63 Victory Over No. 4 McNeese
Courtesy of Brandon Williams, Southland Conference
Box Score | Photos | Tournament Central
KATY, Texas – UIW made sure there would be no need for last-second heroics on Friday as the fifth-seeded Cardinals put together a complete team effort that pushed them one step closer to the Southland Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament championship.
Scoring at least 20 points in each quarter, UIW overwhelmed third-seeded McNeese 90-63 at Leonard E. Merrell Center, putting the Cardinals (11-16) into Saturday’s semifinal against top-seed HBU at 1 p.m. CT
The Cardinals lost both regular season games to the Huskies. UIW fell at home 62-57 on January 20 and were defeated in Houston in a 51-45 contest on February 24.
“Give a lot of credit to UIW. They played extremely well today,” said McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy, whose team (13-15) had defeated UIW twice in the regular season. “That was the best I had seen them play all year.”
UIW’s Destiny Terrell led the way with 24 points and 19 rebounds, falling one board short of becoming the conference’s first women’s player to record a 20-20 outing since Nicholls’ Cassidy Barrios on January 6, 2018.
“She was absolutely phenomenal,” said UIW head coach Jeff Dow. “I was kinda giving her a hard time as to why she couldn’t get the 20th rebound,” he added jokingly.
The Cardinals got a huge boost from its bench, which outscored the Cowgirls 38-14. Reserve Chloe Storer added 12 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists, while Tiana Gardner chipped in with 10 points, seven rebounds and two steals.
UIW picked up the same scoring pace from Thursday, exploding out of the gate with a 21-9 lead with 3:09 left in the opening period following an and-one from Moore, who scored six points in the opening outburst. However, it was the blistering shooting of Terrell, who tallied nine points on 4-of-5 shooting. Overall, the Cardinals finished the first quarter at a 61 percent clip from the field, due in part to scoring 14 points in the paint.
McNeese shot just 25 percent from the field, missing six of its first eight attempts from beyond the arc. The Cowgirls — who went scoreless over the final 2:56 of the first — would have been in a deeper deficit had it not been for the scoring of Southland Conference second-teamer and Freshman of the Year Kaili Chamberlain, who scored eight of her team’s points before getting a breather in the final minute of the first quarter, which found them trailing 26-12.
“We were beating the press really well,” said Storer of the Cardinals’ first quarter. “We’re obviously quite an athletic team and we can run the floor as well, so I think pushing it on the floor in offensive transition really helped us.”
The Cardinals continued its dominance into the second quarter, opening a 40-22 lead with 4:52 before intermission as the Cowgirls continued to struggle from the field. The lead became 43-22 when Jamie Means scored her first basket of the game at the 3:10 mark.
Much of UIW’s success came from a decisive edge on the glass. The Cardinals doubled McNeese on the glass, holding a 24-12 margin in the first half. UIW also did a stellar job of protecting the ball, turning it over just three times in the first 20 minutes of play.
The formula proved successful for the Cards, who took a commanding 46-27 lead into intermission.
“I’m just unbelievably proud of our team,” said Dow.
McNeese found itself down 50-27 just 1:10 into the third quarter as its offense continued to falter. With UIW denying opportunities inside, the Cowgirls were unable to make the Cardinals pay from long distance, missing 10 of its first 12 from three-point range.
With its scoring curtailed, the Cowgirls fell further behind, facing a 57-33 deficit at the midway point of the third quarter. McNeese endured a scoring drought of nearly four minutes during the quarter in which they missed 11 of its first 13 shots.
UIW took a 70-39 lead into the fourth quarter before the Cowgirls’ offense finally perked up. McNeese, which had not scored more than 15 points in any of the first three quarters, scored 24, with Le’Shenae Stubblefield scoring 10 of her team-best 17 in the final 10 minutes.
“We had our worst game of the year at the worst possible time,” said Kennedy, “but we’re a young team and have to grow from that.”
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