BEAUMONT, Texas – DeA'ngela Mathis made sure her final regular-season home game in the Montagne Center was one she would always remember.
 
Mathis poured in a career-high 35 points on Senior Night to lead the Lamar University Cardinals to a 90-55 romp over Houston Baptist in a Southland Conference women's basketball game at the Montagne Center on Wednesday. The win was LU's 28^th straight home victory, the second-longest active such streak in the nation.
 
The Cardinals are 13-0 at home this season after going 15-0 last season, meaning Mathis, who transferred to LU after a stellar two-year career at the junior-college level, has never tasted defeat in the Montagne Center.
 
"We want this to be our house. We want to defend our nest," LU coach Robin Harmony said. "The kids take a lot of pride in it. Obviously, sooner or later somebody is going to beat us in here, but we want to make it hard for them."
 
Mathis set the tone early, scoring 14 points in the first quarter as the Cardinals (20-6 overall, 15-1 Southland) opened a 26-6 lead after one period. Mathis was 6-of-7 from the field in the first quarter, finishing the game 14-of-27.
 
"I got warm early before the game, so that helped me a lot," Mathis said. "I just kept shooting the same way. I didn't change a thing."
 
The Cardinals also got a triple-double from Chastadie Barrs, her fourth of the season. Barrs finished with 16 points, 10 assists and 10 steals. The nation's leader in steals, Barrs has recorded at least one steal in all 87 games of her career.
 
"Defense was a big thing for us tonight," Barrs said. We wanted to create turnovers."
 
LU was certainly successful in that regard, collecting 28 steals on 40 HBU turnovers. The Cardinals had a whopping 51-8 edge in points off turnovers.
 
Senior Baileigh O'Dell, another Cardinal playing her last regular-season game at the Montagne Center, had a career-high five steals. Moe Kinard matched her career high with five steals, while Mathis equaled her career high with four thefts.
 
Kinard added 21 points for the Cardinals, who extended their overall winning streak to 12 games.
 
LU led 52-23 at intermission and 81-38 after three quarters before HBU outscored the Cards 17-9 in the final 10 minutes as LU emptied the bench, with all 15 players seeing action.
 
"We were able to get everybody into the game," Harmony said. "They all got some quality minutes."
 
HBU (8-17, 4-11) got a pair of double-doubles. Shannon Jones had 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Veronika Kirienko finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
 
The Cardinals remained a half-game ahead of Stephen F. Austin in the race for first place in the conference. The Ladyjacks were 55-50 winners at Central Arkansas on Wednesday, setting up a first -place showdown between LU and SFA at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Nacogdoches, Texas. The Cardinals would guarantee themselves of the top seed in next month's Southland Conference Tournament with a win on Saturday. With Wednesday's wins, LU and SFA both wrapped up automatic berths into the tournament semifinals as the top two seeds.
 
"We know Saturday is a big game," Harmony said. "We know it will be a tough game at their place. We need everybody to step up."
 
Following Saturday's game, LU closes the regular season at McNeese on March 3. The conference tournament runs from March 8-11 in Katy, Texas. LU's first tournament game will be March 10.