March 14, 2008
KATY, Texas - The No. 4 seed Lamar University women's basketball team erupted for 46 second half points and ran away from the No. 8 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders for a 63-50 win in the semi finals of the Southland Conference Tournament at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.
With the win Lamar improves to 19-12 on the year and advances to the first Southland Conference tournament final in school history. They will face the UTSA Roadrunners at 3 p.m. Saturday with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line. The Islanders finish the season with a 12-20 record.
Trailing 18-17 at halftime, the Lady Cardinals opened the second half with an 11-0 run over the first 5:10 of the half to take control of the game. While the Lamar offense was starting to heat up their defense was in full lockdown mode, holding Corpus Christi without a field goal until the 12:57 mark of the second half.
The strong defense continued for LU as they built their lead to 22 points at 47-25 with 7:22 to play. Lamar outscored Corpus 30-7 over the first 13 minutes of the second half. The Lady Cardinals capped off their second outburst with an Aida Bakhos layup which gave LU a 49-27 lead with 6:42 to play.
Despite the big hole Lamar had put them in the Islanders made one last ditch effort to keep their season alive. Corpus Christi responded to the LU run with an 18-5 run over a five minute stretch to cut the deficit to nine points.
After the game was cut down to a single digit lead for Lamar, the Lady Cardinals closed out the game on a 14-5 run to post the 63-50 win.
Lamar was able to take full control of the game behind the strong second half offensive performances by Tamara Abalde and Nikki Williams. Abalde scored 15 and Williams added 10 over the final 20 minutes to pace LU to victory.
After a dismal offensive performance in the first half the Lady Cards offense posted a 59.3 percent shooting percentage, while the defense held Corpus to just 34.5 percent from the field.
In the first half both teams struggled to get their offense going. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi went 8-25 from the field for a 32 percent shooting percentage while the Lady Cardinals shot just 25.9 percent, sinking seven of their 27 shots.
For the game Lamar was led by Nikki Williams 19 points, four assists and three steals, while Abalde finished the game with 18 points and seven rebounds. Bakhos also turned in a solid performance, scoring eight points and grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.
A&M-Corpus Christi was led by Shaye Montgomery's 11 points, while Jade Davis added eight points. Deziree Green and Adrienne Scott led the islanders in rebounding, pulling down six boards apiece.
As a team the Lady Cardinals finished the game with a 42.6 shooting percentage while Corpus Christi shot 33.3 percent. Lamar also won the battle on the boards, out rebounding the Islanders 40 to 35.
