Beating the cold: Kinard’s 3-point clinic; Mathis’, Barrs’ career highs power ailing Lamar past UNO
Published 9:45 pm Wednesday, January 3, 2018
- Moe Kinard of Lamar fires a made three-point shot against Kayla Mundy of New Orleans during the second quarter Wednesday in Beaumont. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
BEAUMONT — Moe Kinard shot only 30.2 percent from three-point range going into Wednesday’s New Orleans at Lamar women’s basketball game, a single-season low for the junior.
Stopping Kinard from shooting the three might not have been on UNO’s scouting report.
She knocked down five three-point shots in the second quarter, four of them coming on a 17-3 run that propelled the Cardinals to a 100-77 win in the Montagne Center.
Kinard and Chastadie Barrs each finished with 24 points, one behind leading scorer DeA’ngela Mathis.
“Coach [Robin] Harmony has been telling me to set my feet and just shoot the ball and just breathe, don’t think about it,” said Kinard, who finished shooting 6 of 10 from three-point range (6 of 16 overall) and made 6 of 8 free throws. “I just shot the ball and I just kept playing.”
Barrs and Mathis set career highs in scoring Wednesday, both playing through sickness. Harmony said probably three or four Cardinals are sick, the arctic blast attacking much of the country not helping matters any.
“We’ve already had two get it and get better, and there are probably more to come,” Harmony said. “These kids are pretty tough kids.”
The win was Lamar’s 20th straight at home (fifth this season) and kept the Cardinals (8-5, 3-0 Southland) atop the Southland Conference standings along with Central Arkansas (10-4, 3-0), whom Lamar visits Saturday. It was the first time in 30 days the Cards played in the Montagne.
Barrs, the NCAA Division I leader in steals, finished with eight steals and eight assists. Lamar led all teams nationally in steals going into Wednesday at 17.2 per game.
“I just know we have the personnel to fly around and make great steals and play great defense and cause turnovers,” said Barrs, a junior. “So, it doesn’t surprise me that we lead the nation in steals as a team.”
Barrs has made at least a steal in each of her 74 career games. The all-time leading stealer in program history now has 350 for her career.
“I don’t think about it at all,” she said. “I just go out there and play so I can help my team win.”
The team defensive effort wasn’t entirely good enough for Harmony’s taste.
“Obviously we’re very happy with what we did offensively today, but defensively we just gave up 77 points, and we can’t do that,” Harmony said, citing breakdowns in Lamar’s quarter-court defense. “Thank goodness their outside shot wasn’t falling, but we fouled them, put them on the line and let them drive past us, and that’s really not our m.o.”
New Orleans shot 25 for 57 from the field, but made 25 of 27 free throws.
The Privateers (5-9, 1-2) never recovered from the run after trailing only 21-18 through the first 10 minutes.
Randi Brown led New Orleans with 28 points. Kayla Mundy added 21 and Whitley Larry had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Kiandra Bowers added 14 points and 17 rebounds for Lamar.
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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews
**CORRECTS final score**
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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