BEAUMONT — Winning is said to be contagious, so right now the Lamar Cardinals women’s basketball team has been plenty sick.
The Cardinals (8-11, 4-4) will try for their third straight win at 7 tonight when they host Sam Houston State (7-11, 3-5) at the Montagne Center.
Lamar has not been above .500 in Southland Conference play since Jan. 7 when the Cardinals defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 75-70, to move to 2-1.
The Cardinals then lost three straight before this current two-game winning streak that includes the team’s first road win of the season at Stephen F. Austin (64-60) and this past Saturday’s 77-70 victory over Houston Baptist.
“We know that every game is important from now own,” sophomore guard Baileigh O’Dell said. “We don’t just want to get to the conference tournament. We want to win the tournament and make it to the NCAAs. We know we all had to work harder and play better. We didn’t like the taste of losing.”
The Cardinals could still be without senior guard Ja’Meisha Edwards against the Bearkats, who enter the game on a four-game losing skid. Edwards is still under the concussion protocol and is fifth in SLC scoring at 15.2 points per game.
O’Dell, freshman Chastadie Barrs and senior Addesha Collins were the difference against the Huskies on Saturday. The three guards played a combined 188 of the 200 possible minutes. Collins went for 24 points against HBU, two points shy of her career high. Barrs had 14 points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven steals against the Huskies. She is currently second in the nation in steals, averaging four a game.
Freshman forward Kiara Desamours has scored 15 points each of the last two games and has averaged 8.5 rebounds a game in that span while Laka Blache is averaging 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in the two-game winning streak.
Lamar enters the contest 13th in the nation in turnovers forced per game at 21.21 and 11th in steals per game at 11.4.
Senior guard Shernise Robertson leads SHSU with 18.2 points per game.
Lamar leads the all-time series against SHSU 31-25. The Cardinals are 7-2 this season at home and are 6-3 in night games.
Today’s game can be seen on ESPN3.