Barrs leads Cardinals to 43-point win with triple-double
Published 9:10 pm Thursday, November 16, 2017
Lamar sports information
BEAUMONT – Chastadie Barrs registered her second straight triple-double, while Kyla Green scored a career-high 13 points as the Lamar Cardinals pulled away in the second half for a 92-49 win over the Southwestern Assemblies of God Lady Lions in a non-conference women’s basketball game Thursday night.
Barrs had a career-high 24 points and matched her career high with 11 steals to go along with 10 rebounds as the Cardinals (2-1) won their 17th consecutive home game.
“We’re glad to come out of here with the victory,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “We knew we played a really good team that could shoot the ball well. Until we made the adjustments to deny a couple of shooters some touches, we knew we were in for a dogfight.”
LU led 26-13 after one quarter, but the Lady Lions (3-3) cut the LU lead to just 38-30 at intermission. SAGU shot 52.4 percent (11-of-21) from the field over the first two quarters, including 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from 3-point range.
“Leading only 38-30 at halftime was something that we were really disappointed in,” Harmony said. “Hopefully our players will learn from this and change. Because if we don’t, we’re in for a very long season.”
The Cardinals seemed to learn from it during intermission, as LU outscored the Lady Lions 54-19 in the second half, including 32-6 in the fourth quarter. SAGU had trouble dealing with LU’s press, as the Lady Lions committed 41 turnovers. LU outscored SAGU 42-3 in points off turnovers.
“Getting turnovers is what kept us in the game,” Harmony said. “They may not be as quick as us, or as athletic, but they can shoot the ball. They definitely shot better than us tonight.”
The Cardinals, who shot just 36.6 percent (15-of-41) I the first half, heated up after intermission, going 20-of-37 (54.1 percent) over the final two quarters.
The Cardinals dominated inside, outscoring the Lady Lions 54-10 in points in the paint.
“We kind of changed our strategy in the second half, and drove the ball to the rack,” Harmony said.
SAGU cooled off in the second half, shooting just 29.4 percent (5-of-17) over the final 20 minutes.
Baileigh O’Dell added 15 points off the bench for LU. McKenzie Martin led the Lady Lions with 18 points, as she went 6-of-9 from beyond the arc.
The Cardinals won’t have much time to savor the win as they depart Beaumont early Friday morning as they travel to Purdue to meet the Boilermakers of the Big 10 at noon Saturday. That game will be shown on the Big 10 Network+.
After that, the Cardinals return home to host Howard Payne at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Montagne Center.
