WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: CARDS SET SCHOOL RECORD WIN STREAK
Published 12:23 am Sunday, February 18, 2018
Lamar sports information
BEAUMONT — The Lamar Cardinals ran their winning streak to a school-record 11 games and extended their record winning streak at the Montagne Center to 27 games with a hard-fought 65-59 victory over the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders in a Southland Conference women’s basketball game Saturday.
The Cardinals (19-6 overall, 14-1 Southland) maintained their half-game lead over Stephen F. Austin in the battle for first place in the conference. The win also guaranteed LU a first-round bye in next month’s Southland Conference Tournament in Katy, Texas. The top four teams in the standings receive a first-round bye, while the first- and second-place teams receive automatic byes into the semifinals.
LU overcame sloppiness, poor shooting and foul trouble to put away the pesky Islanders (15-10, 8-6). The Cardinals committed 24 turnovers, shot just 37.1 percent (26-of-70) from the field, 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from 3-point range and 58.8 percent (10-of-17) from the free-throw line to improve to 15-9 all-time against the Islanders.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi led by as many as nine points in the first quarter, LU’s largest deficit at home this season. The Islanders led 15-10 after the first quarter before LU bounced back to take a 24-23 lead at halftime.
“We knew they were going to come at us strong,” LU coach Robin Harmony said of the Islanders. “They played with much more intensity than we did.
“We weren’t sharp, we made too many turnovers. We beat their press and then we made some bad decisions.”
LU led 43-36 after three quarters, and by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, but could never pull away from the Islanders.
Chastadie Barrs led LU with 18 points, seven assists and eight steals. Moe Kinard had 13 points, while Kiandra Bowers had six points and a game-high 13 rebounds. As a team, LU had 21 steals, as the Islanders finished the game with 29 turnovers. LU also had a 44-33 rebounding advantage over the Islanders, who entered the game leading the Southland Conference with a rebounding margin of 5.3 per game.
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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