Nov. 19, 2008
BEAUMONT - Behind a solid defensive effort in the second half, the Lamar University women's basketball team opened the 2008-09 season with a 58-49 win over the Grambling State Lady Tigers Wednesday night at the Montagne Center.
Leading by one point at halftime 30-29, the Lady Cardinals opened the second half with a stingy defensive effort which held Grambling without a field goal for the first 4:11. The amped up defense set the tone for the second half, as Lamar held Grambling to just 20 points in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Despite their strong defensive play, the Lady Cardinals allowed the Lady Tigers to get back into the contest as their own offense was unable to find a steady rhythm. Grambling tied the game at 40 with 10:15 to play in the game and again at 42 with 9:16 to play, but Lamar was able to finish off the game with another lock down defensive effort which held GSU to just seven points in the final 9:16.
While their defense got back into gear, the Lady Cardinals offense also kicked in down the stretch, outscoring Grambling 16-7 to finish the game.
Nikki Williams led the way for Lamar, scoring 15 points and passing out six assists, while Darika Hill added 13 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots for the Lady Cardinals. Along with Hill, Lamar's two other post players, Brittney Williams and Trashanna Smith combined to score 14 points and grab 15 rebounds as Williams had nine points and seven boards, while Smith tallied five points and eight rebounds.
Grambling was led by Rachele Dobbin's 14 points, while no other Lady Tigers reached double digits in scoring.
One of the big keys for Lamar was winning the turnover battle, as Grambling gave the ball away 23 times while the Lady Cards had just 11 give aways. Rebounding also played a major role in the win, as LU won the battle 46-40.
The Lady Cardinals will be back in action on Friday night when they take on the Lady Raiders of Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas at 7 p.m. Fans can listen to all the action by logging on to lamarcardinals.com and clicking on the live audio link.
