Dec. 8, 2004
BEAUMONT - Junior Audrea Samuel led a quintet of Lady Cardinals in double digits with 17 points as Lamar dismantled an overmatched LeTourneau squad Wednesday night, 104-57, in a non-conference game at the Montagne Center.
The Lady Cardinals (4-2) snapped a brief two-game losing streak with the emphatic victory, while the Lady Jackets fell to 1-6 overall on the year. Lamar also improved to 2-0 all-time against LeTourneau with the win.
LU's 104-point outburst is the most scored by a Lady Cardinal team since a 109-86 win over TCU during the 1995-96 season. It was also the 18th time in school history the women's team has eclipsed the century mark.
The Lady Cardinals dominated in all phases of the game, including rebounding where they tied a 23-year-old school record with 69 rebounds. The original mark was set on Feb. 7, 1981 against Southwestern Louisiana.
Six Lady Cardinals grabbed five or more rebounds Wednesday night, led by freshman Jana Mustard with a career-high eight. A 6-4 center from Sherman, Mustard also set a career-high with 10 points, and all her efforts occurred in the second half.
Fellow freshman Chelsea Gugliotta, a 6-0 forward from Bicknell, Indiana, also notched a career-high with 14 points after a flawless 5-of-5 performance from the field. Gugliotta played only 12 minutes in the game, but tallied six points in the opening half and eight points in only five minutes during the second frame.
The game opened with an 8-0 Lamar run. The Lady Cardinals never looked back and opened as much as a 27-point lead in the opening half. Lamar connected on 21-of-36 attempts (58.3%) in the first half, while holding LTU to a 25.0% clip on 8-of-32 attempts. The Lady Jackets shot an identical percentage from beyond the arc where they heaved 24 first-half treys.
Samuel, a 6-0 forward from Beaumont, scored 10 of her points in the opening frame on 5-of-11 field goals. Junior Bridgette Brackens and sophomore Alexis Timpone added nine each as the Lady Cardinals carried a 56-31 lead into halftime. Katrina Visina led LeTourneau at the half with 12 points.
In the second half, Lamar's offense shot a relatively cool 42.1 percent from the field and LeTourneau's accuracy sunk to 17.9 percent (7-of-39). LeTourneau shot 23.1 percent from three-point range in the second stanza, but 26 more attempts gave the Lady Jackets a Lamar opponent and Montagne Center record with 50 three-point attempts for the game.
Visina had the bulk of those attempts, finishing the game 3-of-14 from three-point range. She was 6-of-20 from the floor, scoring a game-high 20 points. Teammate Denee McKay had eight points and a team-high nine rebounds, while Vy Truong came off the bench for 13 points with all eight of her field goal attempts from behind the arc.
Brackens finished the game with 15 points for LU and sophomore LaToya Carson dropped in 15 points with six rebounds. Freshman Marcy Patton scored her first collegiate basket and finished with two points as she saw her first action after missing the opening five games with an injury.
The Lady Cardinals continue their homestand on Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. matinee against Centenary College. The LU men will follow at 7 p.m. with a non-conference game against Arkansas Tech. Both games will be played in the Montagne Center.
