Dec. 18, 2008
BEAUMONT - The Lamar University women's basketball team used red-hot three-point shooting to bury the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff 77-54 Thursday night at the Montagne Center.
The win improves the Lady Cardinals record to 6-2 on the year and gives Lamar a perfect 6-0 record at home this season. The Lady Lions fall to 1-7 on the year with the loss.
Emily Spickler sparked the three-point shooting for the Lady Cardinals in the first half, draining all five of her attempts from behind the arc. Her first triple came at the 17:16 mark of the first half, putting LU up 7-2. She nailed another one two minutes later to put Lamar up 15-2, and the Lady Cardinals never looked back.
Holding an 11 point lead with the first half winding down, Nikki Williams joined Spickler by draining a three with nine seconds to play to put LU up 41-27. Between Spickler and Williams the two went 6-6 from behind the arc, while the team finished 6-9.
In the second half the Lady Cardinals continued to hold a comfortable lead over the Lady Lions, not allowing the visitors to get any closer than 12 points down the stretch. Lamar opened up a 23 point lead with 5:37 to play on an Ang Green jumper, but Pine Bluff made a charge to close within 15 points with 1:47 to play.
After the Lady Lions closed the gap, Lamar finished the game on an 8-0 run, keyed by six points from Green and a baseline jumper from Whitney Coffey. Green finished the scoring for LU with a put back layup in the lane with nine-tenths of a second to play, capping the 77-54 win.
Nikki Williams finished the game with 19 points and six assists to lead Lamar, while Spickler finished with 15 points of 5-7 shooting. Brittney Williams also had a strong performance for LU, scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the year, and Green finished with 12 points.
As a team the Lady Cardinals shot 47.5 percent from the field and knocked down nine of their 17 three point attempts for a 52.9 percent clip. Adding to their scorching offense was a solid defensive effort, as they held UAPB to 33.3 percent shooting, while winning the rebounding battle 43-30.
The Lamar women will be back in action on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. when they play host to Mississippi Valley State at the Montagne Center.
