Jan. 30, 2010

BEAUMONT, Texas - Trashanna Smith scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Lamar University women's basketball team to a 69-60 victory over visiting UTSA in a Southland Conference game at the Montagne Center on Saturday afternoon.

Smith added 12 rebounds for her team-best fifth double-double of the season as Lamar (17-4, 7-0) remained the only unbeaten team in SLC play by running its winning streak to seven games.

Jenna Plumley had 18 points, five assists and four steals for the Lady Cardinals, while Kalis Loyd added 17 points.

Lamar trailed 29-26 at halftime, but outscored the Roadrunners 43-31 in the second half. The Lady Cardinals took control of the game in the second half by going on a 27-7 run over a span of 9 minutes, 37 seconds midway through the second half.

"We played more up-tempo in the second half," Lamar coach Larry Tidwell said. "We played great defense today."

Lamar held UTSA (10-9, 4-2) to 33.8 percent (23-of-68) from the field for the game.

Ashleigh Franklin led UTSA with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Judy Jones added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Roadrunners.

Saturday's crowd of 1,386 fans was Lamar's second-largest home crowd of the season.

Lamar will take to the road for a pair of conference games. The Lady Cardinals are at Central Arkansas at 7 p.m. Wednesday and at Stephen F. Austin at 6 p.m. Saturday. Both games will be aired live on the Lamar athletics Web site: www.lamarcardinals.com.

Lamar returns home at 2:05 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13 to host Texas State in an SLC game. That contest has been designated as "Pink Zone Game" to help raise awareness of the battle against breast cancer.

For ticket information for Lamar home games, call (409) 880-1715 or visit www.lamarcardinals.com.

LAMAR