Jan. 5, 2006
LAKE CHARLES, La. - After a dominating first half, the Lamar University women's basketball team needed late game heroics to slip by the McNeese State Cowgirls 52-51 for a win the Southland Conference opener in Lake Charles, La.
After seeing their 28-20 halftime lead slip away to a four point deficit at 47-43 with 5:09 to play, the Lady Cardinals looked to their leaders to pull them past McNeese. LaToya Carson knocked down a jump shot in the paint to pull the Lady Cards within two at 47-45.
Carson pulled the game to within one point with 2:04 to play by sinking two free throws and Dionne Pounds tied the game at 48 by making the front end of two free throws with 1:47 left on the clock.
In the finals minute, senior Audrea Samuel, made a layup to put LU up 50-48 with 48 seconds to play, but failed to convert the free throw after being fouled on the shot. McNeese answered Samuels bucket with a layup and made free throw by Marquita Williams, putting Lamar behind 51-50 with 29 seconds to play. The Lady Cardinals went right back to their senior scoring leader on the next possession and Samuel responded by sinking two free throws with 14 seconds to play after being fouled on a jump shot in the paint to Give Lamar a 52-51 lead.
McNeese had three shots at pulling out the win, but three point attempts by Regina Spivey and Courtnee' Hollins came up short and a final 15-foot heave by Spivey fell short as the buzzer sounded.
In the first half the Lady Cardinals and McNeese battled closely for the first nine and a half minutes before Lamar turned up the defensive pressure on the Cowgirls. The Lady Cards outscored McNeese 18-4 over the final 10:23 of the first half, using a stingy defensive effort which caused eight turnovers and forced tough shots by the Cowgirls.
The opening half was capped off by a steal by Shaquitta Coffey and a follow up layup by Valeisa Crenshaw, who picked up the miss by Coffey as the buzzer sounded. Crenshaw's bucket gave LU a 28-20 lead at the half, their largest of the game to that point.
In the beginning of the second half, Lamar opened up a 12-point lead at 36-24 before McNeese used a 15-2 run to take back the lead and put Lamar on their heels. Jana Mustard and Carson knocked down back to back buckets to snap the Cowgirl run and get the Lady Cardinal offense back on track.
For the game, Carson led Lamar with 21 points and seven rebounds in 33 minutes on the court. Samuel finished with eight points in the game, while Pounds led the Lady Cards with nine rebounds. The Lady Cardinals received a big boost of the bench by sophomore post Mustard, who had her best game of the year with four points, six rebounds and a block in 20 minutes.
McNeese was led by Williams and Spivey who scored 11 and 10 points respectively, while Shamika Stewart grabbed 12 rebounds to lead all players in the game.
The Lady Cardinals (5-5, 1-0) will be in action again Saturday night when they take on Texas State-San Marcos in the Montagne Center at 7 p.m.
