BEAUMONT, Texas - Anytime Lamar University's women's basketball team takes on Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, the expectations are always an early Cardinals runaway only for the Islanders to make the game interesting in the fourth quarter. While that would be the case once again, the Cardinals had built a big lead and limited AMCC down the stretch to pull off a 68-63 win at the Neches Arena on Saturday. This extends LU (20-5, 14-1) to a 10-game winning streak for the first time since the 2018-19 season and also has them still in first place of the Southland Conference standings.

LU honored four seniors on this day and three of them (Victoria Mason, Sabria Dean, and NJ Weems) were announced in the starling lineup. Dean finished with 17 points on five field goals with three from behind the arc while Weems tallied nine points and grabbed five rebounds. Leading the Cardinals overall was Akasha Davis, who possessed her 14th double-double with 18 points and 17 rebounds. While AMCC outshot LU from the field (40.3%-39.1%), Big Red connected on six of the games' nine three-pointers. They also edged out the Islanders 23-20 in both points off turnovers and bench points. 

But early on, it was the Islanders that got off to a solid start running ahead 7-2. Unfazed by the slow start, the Cardinals pecked back into the game and seized their first lead with a 9-2 run of their own. AMCC retook the lead at 14-13, but watched as Brooklyn Mitchell came off the bench and knocked down two threes to spark a run of eight unanswered points giving LU a 21-14 lead after one.

There was good and bad news for the Islanders in the second quarter. The good news was that they decided to give LU a sneak preview of how they surge back by opening things on a 9-1 run to grab the 23-22 lead. The bad news was that they would be the victim of the 18th quarter this season in which LU allowed single digit points. Because of this, Big Red overtook AMCC for good with 14 straight points including a run of eight unanswered from Davis herself to finish the half with 12 points. Going into the locker room, the Cardinals had a lead of 36-23. 

Davis began the second half with six more points while Weems tallied a lay-up to give LU their largest lead at 44-25. But any thoughts of the Cardinals running away were put on hold as the Islanders responded on a 9-2 surge. While Dean's three-pointer at the 3:48 mark stretched LU's lead to 49-34, it was AMCC that closed the quarter with a 4-2 run. LU managed to fire up 42.8% from the field in the third.

Up 51-38 going into the fourth quarter, the Cardinals were anticipating another Islander surge. However, they began by stretching their lead to 59-42, which included threes from Dean and Malay McQueen. The Cardinals' defense would maintain this lead with 1:48 left to go. That was when the Islanders began their comeback effort. Fortunately for LU, the comeback came too late as all the Islanders could do was make the final 68-63 in LU's favor. 

With three games left in the regular season, the Cardinals will head up to Commerce to take on the Lions this Thursday night at 6:30 PM. 
 

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