Jan. 26, 2006
BEAUMONT - Trailing by five points with 3:49 to play, the Lamar University women's basketball team looked to their post players to bring them back for a 73-70 win over the Nicholls State Lady Colonels at the Montagne Center Thursday night.
The comeback started with a lay up by Chelsea Gugliotta with 3:31 to play, and a lay up and free throw by Audrea Samuel tied the game at 69 with 2:01 to play. The Lady Cards took a two point lead on two free throws by LaToya Carson, with 1:38 to play, and never trailed again. A Samuel jumper with 1:00 to play put Lamar up three.
The play in the post, and an intense defensive effort by the Lady Cardinals allowed Nicholls to score just one point over the final 3:47, a free throw by Jamie Octave with 1:24 to play.
The Lady Colonels opened with game on fire from the field, knocking down four triples in the first seven minutes, en route to a 13 point lead at 22-9 before Lamar started chipping away at the deficit. The Lady Cardinals closed the half on a 10-6 run to trail by eight at 39-31.
Lamar wasted no time jumping on Nicholls in the second half, outscoring the Lady Colonels 15-7 in the first five minutes of the half, tying the game at 48. The game volleyed back and forth for the remainder of the second half, with neither tea leading by more than five points.
Several Lady Cardinals had monumental games Thursday night, as Samuel scored her 1,000th career point, en route to a season-high 22 point performance. She reached the 1,000 point plateau with 9:04 to play in the game after grabbing the rebound off a missed three pointer by Janique Garrett.
Gugliotta also had a big night for Lamar, scoring a career-high 20 points on six of eight shooting from the field, and knocking down eight of her nine free throw attempts. Thirteen of Gugliotta's 20 points came in the first half, as she was able to get open in the post and draw fouls on the Lady Colonel defenders. She sank seven of eight shots from the charity stripe in the first half.
Carson, who struggled to score in the opening half, found her touch in the second half, scoring 12 of her 14 points in the final 20 minutes. Garrett also had a solid night at the point guard position, passing out a career-high six assists, all in the second half.
Nicholls was led by Jamie Octave's 24 points and nine rebounds, while Claire Barry and Katherine Plummer scored 17 and 10 points respectively.
The Lady Cardinals out rebounded Nicholls 42-32 for the game, but lost the turnover battle, as they threw it away 17 times to Nicholls 10.
The win boosted Lamar to 2-4 in Southland Conference play, and 7-9 on the season, and dropped Nicholls to 2-16 and 1-6.
The Lady Cardinals will be in action again Saturday afternoon when they take on the Ladyjacks of Stephen F. Austin at 4 p.m. in Nacogdoches.
