Jan. 10, 2009

HAMMOND, La. - The Lamar University women's basketball team dropped their Southland Conference opener 64-53 to Southeastern Louisiana Saturday afternoon at the University Center.

The Lady Cardinals fall to 9-5 on the year and 0-1 in conference play with the loss, while Southeastern Louisiana improves to 9-5 overall and 1-0 in league play.

Trailing 37-30 at halftime, the Lady Cardinals were never able to fully make up the deficit, as the Lady Lions had and answer for every LU run. Lamar got as close as three points at 49-46 with five minutes, to play, but a wide open three pointer by Kim Edmunson extended the SLU lead back to six points with four minutes to play

As the clock wound down in the game, LU was never able to get any closer than five points. Southeastern clamped down defensively and knocked down free throws on their offensive end of the floor down the stretch, giving them a double digit victory.

With the game tied at 13-13 with 11:48 to play in the first half, the Lady Lions opened up a 14-pointn lead with a 21-7 run which gave them a 34-20 lead with 4:02 to play. Lamar answered the Southeastern rally with a 10-3 run to close out the half trailing by seven at 37-30.

Brittney Williams led the way for LU in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 11 points on 5-6 shooting. Her only missed shot from the field came at the halftime buzzer. Nikki Williams added seven points for Lamar and Ang Green scored five.

Brittney Williams led the way for Lamar in the ballgame, scoring 22 points and grabbing eight rebounds. She scored the 1,000th point of her Lady Cardinals career on a free throw with 13:16 to play in the game, making her just the 10th player in school history to score 1,000 or more points.

Green also had a solid performance for LU, scoring 15 points.

The Lady Cardinals will return home for a pair of games on Wednesday and Saturday. On Wednesday night LU will host divisional foe UT-Arlington at 7:00 and on Saturday Lamar takes on rival McNeese State at 2 p.m.