Nov. 29, 2006

BEAUMONT, Texas - The Lamar University women's basketball team held strong for the opening 10 minutes of the first half before the third-ranked Oklahoma Sooners opened up a double digit lead and eventually handed the Lady Cardinals a 79-44 loss at the Montagne Center.

Lamar opened the first half going toe-to-toe with the Sooners, as they trialed by one point at 12-11 with 11:23 to play in the half. Oklahoma then used a 23-9 run to close out the opening 20 minutes and take a 35-20 lead into the break. Nyeshia Stevenson sparked the OU offense in the first half, scoring 11 points in just nine minutes.

Oklahoma continued to build on their lead in the first eight minutes of the second half, using a 16-6 run to go up by 25. The second half run by the Sooners was aided by six Lady Cardinal turnovers in the first four minutes of the second half, after turning ball over just six times in the first half.

The Lady Cardinals, who are now 2-4 on the year, were led by Alexis Timpone and LaToya Carson who scored 11 points apiece. Carson became the ninth player in Lamar history to score over 1,000 points in her career when she knocked down a 15-foot jump shot with 5:42 to play in the second half.

Vickie Toney also turned in a solid performance for Lamar, scoring seven points and blocking two shots.

Oklahoma was led by sophomore Courtney Paris who scored 21 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, her 33rd consecutive double-double. Stevenson finished with 13 and Leah Rush added 11 for the Sooners (5-0), who've won 19 consecutive regular-season games and 11 straight on the road.

The Lady Cardinals were outrebounded 51-29 in the game, and shot the 32 percent from the field while OU connected on 41.1 percent of their shots.

The Lamar women will be in action again Saturday night when they take on Belhaven at 7 p.m. at the Montagne Center.