Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT – Leading by four points after three quarters of play, the Lamar Cardinals opened the fourth quarter on an 11-1 run to pull away from Houston Baptist en route to a 63-50 victory on Wednesday night in Southland Conference action.

The win for the Cards improves them to 8-4 on the season and 1-0 in SLC action. The Huskies dropped to 5-6 on the season and 0-1 in SLC play.

Miya Crump led the Cards with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Crump also had a team-high with seven rebounds. Moe Kinard rounded out the double-figure scorers for LU with 16 points. LU shot 32.8 percent in the contest. With the win, LU stretched its home winning streak to 34 straight games.

“We knew this would be a tough game tonight,” remarked head coach Robin Harmony. “This was our first game since December 20 and HBU is a good team and are coached very well. We came into the game not focused but we found a way to win tonight.”

Opening the first quarter both teams struggled shooting the ball, but the Cards slowly grew a lead to 9-0 over the first 5 minutes of the game. Lamar held the Huskies scoreless until 4:30 left in the quarter when Lauren Calver hit a jumper.
Lamar slowly stretched its lead to 11 points after a fast break layup by Kinard.

That would be the last field goal for the Cards and the lead was down to eight, 17-9, after the first quarter of play. In the first quarter, the Cards forced seven turnovers and held the Huskies to 22 percent shooting.

The Cards came out struggling to shoot in the second quarter as they went the first four minutes scoreless. Angel Hastings put LU on the board in the quarter as she hit a three-pointer. Following Hastings three, shots started falling for Lamar.

A layup by Crump put the Cards ahead by 10, 25-15, with 3:39 left in the quarter. The Huskies would not go away as they trimmed the lead down to six, but the Cardinals responded and built the lead back to double-figures after a pair of free throws by Shedricka Pierson. HBU cut the lead down to eight, 30-22, at halftime.

The Huskies lead was down to six to start the third quarter, but LU grew the lead back up to 10, 34-24, after a Crump steal and layup. Following the layup, the Huskies came back and six, after a Megan Valdez-Crader layup. LU got the lead back to 8 multiple times during the third quarter but could not get it back to double-figures. HBU closed the quarter by trimming the lead down to four, 41-37.

Opening the fourth quarter, the Cards went on an 11-1 run growing its lead to 14, 52-38. During the run, Pierson put the Cards ahead by 10, 48-38 after she hit a three-pointer. The lead grew to 14, 52-38, after a pair of free throws by Kinard.

The lead grew to as many as 17 late in the fourth quarter. LU continued to hold a double-figure lead for the reminder of the game and came away with a 63-50 win over HBU to open Southland Conference play.

The Cardinals return to action on Saturday when they host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Southland Conference action. Tip is set for 2 p.m.