Feb. 16, 2011
BEAUMONT, Texas - Jenna Plumley scored a season-high 28 points as the Lamar University women's basketball team held on for a 68-65 victory over Southeastern Louisiana in a Southland Conference game Wednesday night.
Plumley hit two free throws with 14.1 second remaining to seal the win as Lamar (20-5 overall, 9-2 SLC) scored the final four points of the game after seeing a 19-point second-half lead erode away.
Lamar held a 32-17 lead at halftime and increased the advantage to 36-17 in the first minute of the second half, but Southeastern Louisiana (10-13, 2-9) fought back to take a 65-64 lead on a Rachel Mackie jumper with 1:21 remaining. That's when the Lamar defense stiffened. Southeastern Louisiana missed a free throw and two field-goal attempts as well as committing a turnover.
Trashanna Smith canned two free throws with 31 seconds remaining to give Lamar a 66-65 lead before Plumley drained her two free throws.
"I was impressed at the end with our resiliency," Lamar coach Larry Tidwell said. "We had enough left to win."
Southeastern Louisiana, which shot just 30.4 percent (7-of-23) from the floor in the first half, shot 58.3 percent (21-of-36) from the field after intermission.
"Defensively, we just shut it down for a while," Tidwell said. "We were unable to get stops."
Monique Whittaker had 15 points for Lamar, while Ang Green had 10 points. Plumley was 7-of-8 from the line. Her 92.8 percent shooting percentage from the line for the season, puts her second in the nation.
Rashima Jenkins led Southeastern Louisiana with 18 points. Jessica Sommers had 12 points for the lady Lions, while Mackie had a game-high 11 rebounds.
The win gave the Lady Cardinals their third consecutive 20-win season, the first time in the history of the program Lamar has had three straight seasons of 20 or more wins.
Lamar returns to action at 7 p.m. Saturday with a conference game at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Lady Cardinals close out the home portion of their schedule when they host Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. Feb. 23.
LAMAR
