BEAUMONT — Port Arthur Memorial Lady Titans coach Kevin Henry knows his team cannot cough up 25 turnovers against a team like Beaumont Ozen. The Lady Titans also cannot be called for 23 fouls and have only three players score all the points.
Those three things added up to a 58-42 loss to the Lady Panthers. Memorial dropped to 3-5 on the season while Ozen is now 7-2.
Memorial was up 24-11 and then 26-15 in the second before three significant runs helped the Lady Panthers grab the lead in the third period.
The Lady Panthers went on a 7-0 run to end the second and trailed 26-22 the break.
Ozen and Memorial then traded buckets before the Lady Panthers grabbed the lead with a 7-0 run.
Memorial got to within 32-31 on a bucket from Channel Babineaux, but the third period ended with Ozen mounting a 13-0 run to lead 45-31 heading into the fourth. Memorial scored only five points in the third and gave up 23 to Ozen.
“That third quarter really hurt us,” Henry said. “It also hurts when you have about 26 fouls to their seven. Those last few down the stretch really didn’t matter, but those others put us in a hole.”
Memorial, in fact, had 23 fouls to Ozen’s eight.
“It was hard,” Henry said.
The shots were falling early for the Lady Titans, who outscored the Lady Panthers 15-11 in the game’s first 8 minutes.
Victoria Brown drained two three-pointers in the first period while Babineaux and Jakeira Ford had another.
Those would be the only three players on the Memorial roster who scored during the game.
Ford scored 15 points to go with 14 rebounds while Babineaux had 14 and Brown had 13. Brown and Ford each had three assists. Kennedi Lofton pitched in five boards.
Brown and Babineaux hit back-to-back threes in the first to give Memorial an 11-2 lead. Brown’s second trey in the first pushed the Lady Titans up to a 15-5 advantage.
Ozen closed the gap with a 6-0 run as the Lady Titans led 15-11 heading into the second.
Ford opened the second with a bucket, then Babineaux scored seven straight points as the Lady Titans went up 24-11. Brown’s jumper midway through the second to make it 26-15 was the last bucket for Memorial until Ford’s shot early in the third.
Ozen was 16 of 24 from the free-throw line, 66 percent, while Memorial made four of seven from the charity stripe.
Memorial was 15 of 40 shooting, for 37 percent, and made 8 of 17 from behind the arc, for 47 percent.
Ozen outrebounded Memorial 37-32.
Ozen’s Whitney Bernard led all players with 18 points. Teammates Chelsea Gloude and Mercedes Perry each had nine points. Perry pulled in 10 rebounds.
Memorial takes on the winner of Thursday’s Fort Worth Tremble Tech and Harker Heights at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the YMBL/BISD South Texas Shootout. The game will be played at the Montagne Center at Lamar University.