Dec. 6, 2008
BEAUMONT - Led by a dominant low post performance by Brittney Williams and a clutch free throw shooting performance by Nikki Williams, the Lamar University women's basketball team posted a 73-67 win over Louisiana Monroe on Saturday at the Montagne Center.
The Lady Cardinals, who improve to 5-1 on the year with the win, will be back in action on Monday night when they take on Baylor in Waco, Texas at 7 p.m. Louisiana Monroe, who entered the game with an RPI ranking of 50, falls to 4-3 with the loss.
Leading 34-31 at halftime, the Lady Cardinals started the second half with an 18-11 run to build their lead to 10 points. Lamar was able to take advantage of the Warhawks by getting into the paint after beating them on the dribble for easy baskets. After several layups and pull-up jumpers softened the ULM perimeter defense, Emily Spickler drained a three pointer from the corner to giver LU a 52-42 lead with 13:48 to play in the game.
After stretching the lead to double digits Lamar had to hold off a ULM rally which cut the lead to three points. A 9-2 Warhawk run was finished off by a Jordan Rawson free throw that cut the lead to three at 54-51, but that was as close as the visiting team would get.
Lamar again rallied to open their game back up, using a 10-3 run to get back up by 10 points. The rally was capped off by a Nikki Williams three pointer which put LU up 64-54 with 6:38 to play in the game.
The two teams traded baskets and free throws for the remainder of the game, but ULM could not get any closer than four points as Lamar knocked down their free throws to keep the lead comfortable.
Nikki Williams, who finished the game a perfect 10-10 at the free throw line, drained all eight freebies she took in the second half to lead the Lamar effort at the charity stripe. The Lady Cards as a team were solid at the free throw line in the second half, going 16-20 while ULM went 11-16.
In the first half the Warhawks jumped out to a five point lead in the first eight minutes, but the strong play of Brittney Williams proved too much for ULM to handle. The junior forward gave LU a one point lead on a layup with 7:27 to play in the first half, and then put Lamar up by three with another layup on the next possession. After gaining the three point advantage, the Lady Cardinals never trailed again. Brittney Williams finished the first half with 15 points an 7-11 shooting, including Lamar's only three pointer of the half.
Brittney Williams finished the game with a season-high 21 points on 9-16 shooting, while Nikki Williams finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. Ang Green and Trashanna Smith gave Lamar a strong effort off the bench, as Green tallied 12 points, while Smith ripped down 12 rebounds and scored eight points.
As a team the Lady Cards shot 43.4 percent from the field while holding ULM to 36.9 percent from the field. Lamar also won the rebounding battle, 42 to 36.
