Box Score EDINBURG, Texas - Free throws down the stretch sealed it for the Islanders women's basketball team as it outlasted Texas-Pan American, 60-57,
at the UTPA Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon. With the win, A&M - Corpus Christi improves to 2-4 on the year while the Broncs fall to 6-5.
Kassie Jones got her second start of the year and did not dissappoint, as she led the way for the Islanders with a career-high 17 points in the game to go along with five 3-pointers. The sophomore sparked the team's first-half success with three 3-pointers.
"[Kassie] has played great all week in practice and we knew she had it in her coming into today," said head coach Royce Chadwick. "She let the game come to her and she took what they gave her and was a big factor for us. People forget that she is just a sophomore and boy does she have a great career ahead of her."
Four Islanders scored in double-digits during the game, including Jones. Junior Shay Weaver scored 14 points and nailed all six of her free throws down the stretch. Desoto, Texas, native Camesha Davis scored a team-high 10 points in the first half, finishing with 13, and senior transfer Olivia Fouty finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
Though the score was incredibly close, the game was filled with many runs. The Islanders started the game on an 18-4 run as five different players scored during the first nine minutes. The Islanders hit a cold stretch during the final 4:45 of the half, as they were not able to hit a field goal. The Broncs were able to fight back into the game thanks to a 13-0 run, making it 32-30 Islanders headed into the locker room.
The second half was a back-and-forth affair as both teams traded points in the early minutes. UTPA was able to stretch its lead to eight points with 10:13 left in the game, but timely 3-pointers from both Jones and Weaver combined with solid free throw shooting brought the Islanders back to tie the game at 52 with 2:20 remaining. Camesha Davis hit both of her free throws to put the Islanders ahead for good with 41 seconds left.
"It was certainly a game of runs and especially early," noted Chadwick. "We jumped out early and had a lot of enthusiasm and intensity to start the game, and then we got ahead and complacent. They scrapped their way back into it and fought hard to almost tie it at halftime.
"I thought in the second half it was pretty much a heavyweight bout, but we were able to stop fouling them," he added. "They didn't have many field goals in the first half but we put them at the line 22 times, and lucky for us, they didn't hit all of them."
One area that the Islanders have not excelled at this season has been the free-throw line. The team was shooting 58.8 percent from the stripe prior to today's game, but finished 15-of-17 against UTPA (88.2 percent). A&M-Corpus Christi scored 17 points off of turnovers in the game compared to UTPA's 10.
The Islanders will return home for the next five games as they play host to UT Arlington Dec. 13 at the Dugan Wellness Center. Following UTA, the team will play its next four games at the American Bank Center in downtown Corpus Christi.
"Hallelujah - we are tired of eating on the road and not playing in front of our own fans," Chadwick noted when asked about returning home to play their next five games. "We are really excited to get back home and play in front of our great fans after playing on the road for most of the season."
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