Box Score CORPUS CHRISTI - It was the new faces that propelled the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's
basketball team to a 74-60 exhibition win over the Texas A&M-International Dustdevils Sunday afternoon at the Dugan Wellness Center.
Transfer senior Olivia Fouty provided the spark the team needed when she entered the game in the first half. The Toledo, Ohio native scored eight points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the half, on her way to a 17 point, 16 rebound day.
Junior transfer Shay Weaver added 19 points and 10 rebounds, while a rejuvenated Ashanti Plummer rounded out the Islanders double-digit points club with 10 of her own to go along with nine rebounds on the day.
After the Dustdevils scored the first basket of the game, the Islanders answered with four points of their own and never looked back. TAMUI hung around thanks to Keiona Mathews' 23 points, including 7-of-9 from the charity stripe. Her free-throw with 2:12 remaining in the second half cut the deficit to seven points. Weaver quickly answered with a layup at the other end to ruin any thoughts of a comeback. Desoto, Texas native Camesha Davis scored the final two of her five points via an offensive rebound to push the lead to 14 points.
"We made some plays down the stretch and that's what we were after," said head coach Royce Chadwick. "We were hoping to put our mainstays in there when it counted most and have them step up and rise to the occasion and they did exactly that.
"It was a good game and it was back and forth. We never relinquished the lead, but they did a really good job to cut into it, but I think our players did a really good job to close it out down the stretch."
The Dustdevils held tough for most of the first half, before a 5-0 run by the Islanders at the end of the half pushed the lead to 35-25. Sophomore Kassie Jones made a brilliant pass to Fouty under the basket for the easy layup. Junior transfer Jennifer Ramirez found Plummer at the basket with a wrap-around pass for the easy bucket for one of her six assists.
The Islanders' perimeter defense held the Dustdevils to just 3-of-19 shooting from behind the arc in the first half and just 6-of-28 during the game. That defense was one of the key reasons that the team out-rebounded TAMUI, 57-35 and won the second-chance points battle, 19-7.
A&M-Corpus Christi shot 17-of-25 from the charity stripe on the day and 3-of-14 from behind the arc.
The Islanders will open their regular-season schedule next weekend on the road in Las Vegas, as they will meet UNLV on Friday Nov. 14, under the lights in Sin City.
For the latest team information, like the team on Facebook (Islanders Women's Basketball), and follow the Islanders on Twitter and Instagram (@IslandersWBB).
