Nov. 22, 2011

BATON ROUGE, La. - Kalis Loyd poured in a season-high 28 points to lead the Lamar Lady Cardinals to a 70-62 win over host Southern University in a non-conference game Monday night to open an eight-game road swing.

Loyd, who was named Southland Conference Co-Player of the Week earlier in the day, had 24 points after intermission as Lamar bounced back from a 33-27 halftime deficit.

"We played hard in the first half, but we couldn't get our shots to fall," said Lamar coach Larry Tidwell, who saw his team connect on 46.2 percent (12-of-26) of its shots in the first half after going just 11-of-31 (35.5 percent) in the first half. "Kalis did a great job, but so did everybody else."

Monique Whittaker had 14 points for Lamar (4-1), while Danielle Heithoff had seven points to go along with a career-high 11 rebounds.

Lamar never led until Heithoff hit two free throws with 3:35 remaining to give the Lady Cardinals a 59-57. Lamar never trailed the rest of the way.

"WE played some good defense down the stretch," Tidwell said. "Any time you win on the road, it's a good win."

Loyd's 28 points pushed her past Cassie Brooks for 10th place on Lamar's all-time scoring list with 1,030 points. Carolyn Ford is ninth with 1,056 points.

Lamar returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday when it meets host Kansas in the first round of the BTI Travelers Classic. Lamar will play three games in three days in the tourney, taking on Florida Atlantic at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and IUPUI at 11 a.m. Sunday.

All three games will be broadcast live on LamarCardinals.com.

LAMAR