Feb. 14, 2009
SAN MARCOS, Texas - The Lamar University women's basketball team used a first half offensive burst to take control of Saturday's game at Texas State, and then held off a second half Bobcat rally for a 71-56 win at Strahan Coliseum.
The win gives the Lady Cardinals a 16-7 overall record and boosts their record in Southland Conference play to 7-3. With the loss Texas State falls to 10-13 overall and 4-7 in SLC play.
After Texas State opened the game with a quick 4-0 start, Nikki Williams drained a three pointer with 17:59 to play to get the Lady cards on the board. Williams remained hot from the field over the next two minutes, scoring another six points to keep LU in the game.
The Bobcats were able to maintain a lead with Williams as the only offensive threat for Lamar, but once the rest of the Lady Cardinals got going, they were too much for Texas State to Handle. A Jumper by Darika Hill with 11:26 to play in the half gave Lamar their first lead of the game at 14-13, but it sparked the Lady Cards to a dominant final 10 minutes of the half.
Hill continued her stellar play for the remainder of the half, draining a trio of three pointers en route to a 25-12 Lady Cards run over the final 11:26. Lamar built their lead to as much as 18 points on an Emily Spickler three pointer with 2:16 to play, but The Bobcats closed the gap to 14 points at halftime with a quick 4-0 run to close out the half.
In the second half the Lady Cardinals maintained their cushion for the first five minutes of the half, but The Bobcats used a pesky press to get themselves back into the game. A Victoria Davis Jumper with 6:11 to play in the game trimmed the LU lead to just four points at 58-54, but it was as close as Texas State would get.
Brittney Williams sank a pair of free throws to extend the lead to six points and Ang Green followed with four free throws of her own to give Lamar a 10 point cushion with 3:45 to play. Texas State was never able to get any closer than eight points down the stretch, as the LU defense prevented them from getting a good look at the basket in the final 2:25 of the game.
In the final 2:25 of the game, the Lady Cards did not have their best free throw shooting performance of the season, but knocking down seven of their 12 attempts from the charity strip to give them the 71-56 win.
Nikki Williams finished with a game-high 18 points for Lamar, while Hill chipped in with 15 points on 6-9 shooting. Green came off the bench to score 11 points and Trashanna Smith grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
As a team the Lady Cardinals finished the game with a 35.8 shooting percentage, while Texas State shot 36.5 percent from the field. Lamar won the rebounding battle 41 to 38 and had just nine turnovers to the Bobcats 14. The three point shooting proved to be the biggest difference in the ballgame as Lamar drained nine of 21 attempts from deep, while Texas State was 1-14 from deep.
The Lady Cardinals will be back in action on Wednesday night when they host the Bearkats of Sam Houston State at the Montagne Center at 7 p.m.
