CORPUS CHRISTI - The Texas A&M - Corpus Christi women's basketball team fell to Houston
68-66 in a heartbreaker at the Dugan Wellness Center Friday night.
With just 5.8 seconds remaining in the game, Houston's Jessieka Palmer made her first free throw and missed the second. Ashanti Plummer then corralled the ball and passed it ahead to Jennifer Ramirez who hoisted a potential game-winning three that hit the front-end of the rim and bounced away.
Houston (2-1) jumped out to a 9-3 lead to begin the game, but the Islanders (0-2) ended the first half on a 14-4 run to take a 33-32 lead to the locker room. A&M - Corpus Christi was able to get back into the game thanks to the long ball. Junior transfer Shay Weaver knocked in three shots from behind the arc to ignite the Islanders offense when they needed it most.
"They're a very good basketball team and everyone in their conference is extremely athletic," said head coach Royce Chadwick. "We are trying to build early in the season for the end of the year. If we don't learn anything from this, it will be a loss that will haunt us, but if we learn from it and try to fix the mistakes that cost us this game, than we will be a better basketball team in March."
In a game that featured 12 lead changes and six ties, it seemed like momentum shifted at the end of the first half. The Islanders had a chance to finish off the remaining 33 seconds on the clock, but scored quickly, allowing Houston's Alexia Sanders to put in a three as time expired.
"There's a lot of momentum that is gained when you hit a three and run off of the floor and go into halftime," noted Chadwick. "There were a bunch of big plays in the game and that happened to be a really big one."
The Cougars controlled the game for much of the second half it seemed. The Islanders went cold from the floor, which Houston took advantage of, reeling off five straight points as they increased their lead to 54-48. Camesha Davis took the offense in her own hands and scored six straight to bring the islanders back within striking distance.
Leading the way for the Islanders was Olivia Fouty. The Toledo, Ohio native scored a team-high 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds. Weaver reeled off 15 points and seven boards and Camesha Davis put in 14 in the loss.
A&M - Corpus Christi out-rebounded the Cougars by a mark of 43-30 and it showed as they won the second-chance points battle, 11-6. The Islanders could not hold on to the ball, turning the ball over 15 times in the game leading to 20 points for Houston.
One area of the game that the Islanders didn't take advantage of was at the free throw line. The team shot 7-of-18 (38.9) from the charity stripe in the game and just 4-of-11 in the first half.
The team will have a quick turnaround as they travel to Rice on Monday. Tip-ff for that game is set for 7 p.m.
For the latest team information, like the team on Facebook (Islanders Women's Basketball), and follow the Islanders on Twitter and Instagram (@IslandersWBB).
