LAKE CHARLES, La. — For the first time in program history, Texas-A&M Corpus Christi will compete in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
The second-seeded Islanders defeated first-seeded Lamar 68-61 Thursday evening in the 2024 Jersey Mike’s Southland Conference Women’s Basketball Championship presented by Explore Louisiana title game.
Corpus earns its first SLC Tournament Championship with the victory.
"We’re just happy to do this for all the people that are associated with our program,” Corpus head coach Royce Chadwick said. “We have some wonderful human beings on our team and they are great basketball players but they are even better people and they deserve this.”
Paige Allen earned the tournament’s most-valuable-player honor, finishing with a game-high 22 points on seven-of-14 shooting. Alecia Westbrook scored 17 points on a perfect six-of-six from the field en route to an all-tournament selection.
Lamar’s Akasha Davis and Sabria Dean earned additional all-tournament selections. Davis posted her 19th double-double of the season, finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Dean totaled 19 points on seven-of-19 from the field.
Mia Deck of Texas A&M-Commerce received the final spot on the all-tournament team.
Corpus took a 6-4 lead after a pair of Westbrook free throws at 6:38 in the first quarter and would not concede that advantage for the rest of the contest.
The Islanders closed the first on a 13-2 run and kept the Cardinals at distance through halftime, leading 31-23.
"I think our players were locked in,” Chadwick said. “They knew what we had to do.”
The two-seed’s lead ballooned to as many as 14 when Corpus took a 48-34 lead at 55 seconds in the third quarter.
But the regular season champs had one more push, mounting a 13-2 rally to start the fourth and pull within three after a Davis put-back layup at 5:39. The SLC player of the year had 12 of her 17 points in the final frame.
Allen immediately responded with a layup in transition and the Cardinals would not come any closer. The Islanders amounted 36 points in the paint in the contest.
"We didn’t come to play until the second half,” Lamar head coach Aqua Franklin said. “We’ll be back. It wasn’t our year in the tournament.”
Lamar trailed by four with 19 seconds to play before Mireia Aguado leaked free for a layup out of a timeout, putting a seal on the game.
Corpus lifted itself to that point shooting a 10-of-14 clip from the foul line in the fourth.
This is Chadwick’s fifth SLC Tournament Championship with the other four coming at Stephen F. Austin during a four year stretch from 1998-2001. Corpus’ head coach also claimed his 750th win of his career on Thursday.
The Islanders will receive their placement into the 68-team field during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Selection Show Sunday at 7 p.m. on ESPN.