Dec. 21, 2008
BEAUMONT - The Lamar University women's basketball team rolled to a 72-47 win over Mississippi Valley State Sunday afternnon at the Montagne Center.
With the win, Lamar improves to 7-2 on the year and gives the Lady Cardinals a perfect 7-0 record at home this season. Overall this is the eighth straight win at home for Lamar, who closed out the 2007-08 home schedule with a win over Southeastern Louisiana last year. The Devilettes fall to 3-7 on the year with the loss.
After a slow start to the game offensively the Lady Cardinals fell into a seven point hole at 12-5 with 11:54 to play in the opening half, but would finish strong to take a halftime lead. In the 11:54 of the first half Lamar used strong pressure defense to go on a 26-12 run to take a 31-24 lead into the break.
Nikki Williams keyed the Lady Cards first half run with eight points while Brittney Williams pulled down eight rebounds to lead all players. Nikki Williams' jumper with 9:08 to play tied the game at 13 and a minute and a half later Agnija Reke picked up a steal and a layup to put LU up 19-17, a lead they would never give back.
In the second half Lamar used a steady offensive attack and a stifling defense to blow the game open. The Lady Cards scored 41 points on 40.7 percent shooting as they knocked down 11 of their 27 shots from the field. In turn the defense held the Devilettes to 23 points on 6 of 32 shooting a percentage of just 18.8.
Nikki Williams led the way for Lamar in the early part of the half, scoring nine points and grabbing six rebounds, while every player for the Lady Cardinals did their part to keep the game out of reach.
All 11 players on the LU roster scored at least two points in the ballgame, with Nikki Williams leading the way with 17. Ang Green had another strong performance off the bench for Lamar, scoring 11 points on 9-12 shooting from the free throw line, while Darika Hill finished the game with 10 points. The rebounding duties were handled by Trashanna Smith and Brittney Williams, as Smith pulled down a career-best 13 boards, while Brittney Williams had nine.
As a team the Lady Cards shot 41.5 percent from the field, making 11 of their 53 shots, while holding MVSU to just 25 percent shooting. The Devilettes did win the rebounding battle, 48 to 43, but Lamar won the turnover battle as Mississippi Valley State gave the ball away 25 times while LU only had 15 giveaways.
The Lady Cardinals will be back in action on December 29 when they take on North Dakota in Ames, Iowa at the Iowa State Cyclone Challenge at 5 p.m.
