Fort Worth - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball
team fell just short of taking down the TCU Horned Frogs, falling
78-74 on Saturday afternoon. Shaye Montgomery made a school-record
seven three-pointers while Elisa Beagle recorded her 21st career
double-double, also a new TAMUCC record.
"Shaye and Elisa both put in big time performances for us today
against a quality team," said head coach Robert Robinson. "Shaye
kind of led us in the first half while it took Elisa a little while
to get going.
"We challenged her a little bit, she responded by dominating the
game when she came back in."
Montgomery finished with 23 points on 7-12 shooting, all from
behind the arc. She broke her own record of six made three-point
shots in a game which was also held by three others. Montgomery
had been the most recent, doing so on Feb. 14 208 against
Nicholls.
"Shaye can shoot the ball," said Robinson. "She has been a
little too unselfish but she finally stepped up to the challenge
today and knocked down the shots they gave her."
Beagle scored 17 points and pulled in 15 rebounds, her third
straight game with double-digit rebounds. She breaks the record
that she shared with Terra Andrews. The 15 rebounds also put her
at 750 for her career, just the second to reach that mark in
Islander history.
The Islanders scored the first and last baskets of the half on
their way to a 35-30 halftime lead. Adrienne Scott hit a lay-up at
18:15 to open the scoring. With the score tied at 4-4, Jade Davis
hit the teams first three pointer of the game to go up 7-4, one of
seven threes in the first half for TAMUCC. TCU answered right back
to knot the game at 7-7 with 15:55 left.
The two teams battled back-and-forth until the score was 25-25
with less than four minutes left in the half. From that point on,
the Islanders outscored the Horned Frogs by a 10-5 margin,
including eight straight on a pair of three pointers by Montgomery
and a lay-up by Elisa Beagle.
The Islanders led 35-30 at halftime behind four of Montgomery's
three pointers and by out rebounding TCU by a 27-20 margin. After
the half, the Islanders could not find an answer to the Horned
Frogs offensive attack early on. TCU outscored TAMUCC by a 26-7
margin to open the period and shot 71.4 percent from behind the
three point line in the second half.
"The whole key to the ballgame was the start of the second
half," said Robinson. "For 36 minutes we outplayed them but those
four minutes were the difference in the game."
The Islanders would not give up, outscoring TCU 32-22 over the
final 12:14 of the game and falling just short at 78-74. Down by
10 with just 4:10 to go, Beagle and Montgomery combined to score 15
points in the closing minutes. Beagle hit a pair of lay-ups, a
jumper and a free throw while Montgomery hit two free throws and a
pair of threes to get it within two points at 76-74. TCU finished
the scoring by making two free throws with 11 seconds left to put
the game out of reach.
The Islanders return home to the American Bank Center and
Stripes Court to play Texas-Pan American on Jan. 6 before starting
Southland Conference play. TAMUCC will host Central Arkansas on
Jan. 9 to open the conference schedule.
