Jan. 20, 2007
NATCHITOCHES, La. - The Lamar University women's basketball team could not hold a 12-point halftime lead on Saturday, falling to the Northwestern State Lady Demons 68-61 at Prather Coliseum.
Trailing by 12 at the break, the Lady Demons turned up the heat on the Lady Cards in the second half, out scoring Lamar to a tune of 41-22. The Lady Cardinals had no answer for Ashli Barnum in the post, as she scored 17 of her 22 points in the final 20 minutes.
After losing their lead midway through the second half, the Lady Cardinals responded with a 5-0 run of their own to take a 51-56 lead with 8:01 to play, but Northwestern State closed out the game by out scoring Lamar 22-10 over the final eight minutes.
The biggest problem for the Lady Cardinals was their inability to make free throws, as they finished the game just 8-18 from the charity stripe. Lamar was just 4-14 at the charity stripe in the second half while Northwestern State hit 12-17 and 14 of 22 for the game.
In the first half Northwestern jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but the Lady Cardinals responded with their own offense barrage coming from Pounds and Carson who each tallied 11 points. Lamar finished the half shooting 55.6 percent from the field, knocking down 15-27 shots including five three pointers.
The Lady Cardinal defense helped slow down the Northwestern State offensive attack, as they held them to 32.3 percent shooting. Chassidy Jones keyed the Lady Demon offense with 13 points, knocking down all three of her 3-pointers.
Carson led the way for LU with 22 points and nine rebounds, while Pounds added 15 points.
Along with Barnum's 22 points, the Lady Demons received 22 points from Jones who finished 4-5 from behind the three point arc. Lynzee Green also chipped in 10 points for Northwestern.
The Lady Cardinals out rebounded Northwestern 43-34 and out shot the Lady Demons 42.9 percent to 39.7 percent for the game, but could not overcome their poor free throw shooting performance.
The Lady Cardinals will be in action next Saturday when they take on the McNeese State Cowgirls at 7 p.m. at the Montagne Center.
