Dec. 30, 2004
BEAUMONT - A valiant effort by the Lamar women's basketball team came up short on Thursday night, as the Lady Cardinals fell to Oral Roberts 52-50 in non-conference action at the Montagne Center.
The loss dropped Lamar to 6-4 on the year, while ORU improved to 9-2. It was the fifth straight win for the Golden Eagles and their first-ever victory against Lamar in Beaumont.
Sophomore LaToya Carson, a 5-9 guard from Long Beach, Mississippi, led the Lady Cardinals with 14 points and nine rebounds, including 11 first-half points. She also led LU with three assists and three steals. Freshman Chelsea Gugliotta, a 6-0 forward from Bicknell, Indiana, added seven points and six rebounds in 20 minutes of action.
The game was extremely close throughout, featuring 12 lead changes and seven tied scores. In the opening frame, neither team held more than a four-point advantage and the game was knotted at 28-28 after a pair of free throws by ORU's Claudia Pereira.
Elisha Turek, the Golden Eagles' leading scorer, was held to eight points at the intermission and ORU shot only 32.4 percent (11-of-34) from the floor, while Lamar posted a 40.7 field goal clip (11-of-27).
In the second half, Turek opened the half back-to-back jumpers to put ORU up 32-28 with 18:02 remaining. The Golden Eagles built their lead to as many as eight on three occasions, but Lamar battled back every time. After ORU gained its final eight-point lead of the game, the Lady Cardinals posted a 7-0 run which put the score at 47-46 with 5:19 left to play.
Turek sunk a jumper and one of two free throws to push ORU's lead back to four (50-46), but Lamar stormed back to tie the game with single free throws by Gugliotta and Alexis Timpone, along with a lay up by Carson. With the game tied and less than a minute to play, Lamar called a 30-second timeout to set up its offense for a potential game-winning shot.
On the ensuing possession, however, a Lamar turnover allowed the Golden Eagles' Sarah Davidson to go coast to coast for a fast-break lay up with 14 seconds left, putting ORU up 52-50. After regaining possession with 12 seconds remaining, Carson launched LU's final shot but it proved unsuccessful and ORU escaped with the two-point win.
Both teams struggled offensively, but the Lady Cardinals won the battle of attrition with a 37.0 field goal percentage on 20-of-54 shots. ORU finished the game with a 34.4 percent clip on 21-of-61 attempts from the floor.
After shooting 80 percent from the charity stripe in the first-half, Lamar was only able to manage a 30.8 percent clip in the second frame, before finishing with a 44.4 percent mark (8-of-18). ORU also cooled off from a 71.4 first-half exhibition by sinking only 3-of-7 (42.9) in the second half and concluding the game with a 57.1 percent mark (8-of-14).
Lamar freshman Shaquita Coffey recorded five points and six rebounds, while junior Audrea Samuel chipped in with six points and one assist.
Turek finished the game as the leading scorer and rebounder with 21 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out late in the second half. Alycia Seay added eight points and seven rebounds for ORU.
The Lady Cardinals return to action on Monday, Jan. 3 at 7 p.m., when they travel to Mobile, Alabama to take on the University of South Alabama in their final non-conference game of the season.
