Box Score CORPUS CHRISTI - The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team cruised to a 66-52
win over the New Orleans Privateers Thursday night at the American Bank Center. Olivia Fouty scored a team-high 16 points and narrowly missed her 10th double-double of the year, while Camesha Davis scored 10 points and blocked two shots in the win.
It was all Islanders (12-11, 8-4 SLC) in the first half as the team shot 49.9 percent (15-of-32) from the field on their way to a 39-17 halftime lead. Fouty led the first half charge with 10 points and seven rebounds while junior Ashanti Plummer had a tremendous first half, scoring six points and grabbing eight rebounds on her way to a career-high 13 rebound night.
New Orleans (3-18, 1-11 SLC) opened the second half on an 13-2 run to cut the lead to 11 points at 41-30 before Kassie Jones entered the game and immediately put the Islanders on the board with a jumper on the fast break. Several times throughout the game Jones made immediate impacts off the bench including her three steals. The sophomore has racked up 13 steals over the past three games, many of which have been taken the length of the court for easy transition buckets. She finished with 11 points, including a buzzer-beating jumper from the top of the key with one-second remaining on the shot clock as well as a floater from the left elbow to end the first half.
The Islanders answered UNO's run with a 14-0 run of their own from 9:46 to 5:12 in the second half. Junior Shay Weaver, who is the Islanders leading scorer, recorded seven of her nine total points during the spurt, pushing the lead to 21 points.
The Privateers outscored the Islanders in the second half 35-27, but could not overcome a 22-point deficit. Freshman guard Randi Brown scored a game-high 17 points for New Orleans.
UNO used the 3-pointer to close the gap in the second half, connecting on four of their five total treys in the frame. Danielle Thomas and Octavia Wilson each finished 2-of-4 from downtown for the Privateers.
Jennifer Ramirez added four points and three assists for the Islanders while junior Gee Lawler grabbed a career-high six rebounds and blocked two shots.
A&M-Corpus Christi had its chances to blow the game out completely in the final period by way of the free-throw line, but were unable to capitalize at the line, shooting 35.3 percent (6-of-17)
"I didn't feel like we played with the same type of intensity in the second half that we did in the first half," said head coach Royce Chadwick. "We are lacking in handling success. When bad things happen, we have done a pretty good job of adjusting and coming back with better focus but when things are going well we haven't learned to enjoy and to keep the pressure on and we have to get better at that."
The Islanders will have a quick turnaround as they host Stephen F. Austin on Saturday which will be a doubleheader at the American Bank Center with the Islander men. Both games will be stream live on ESPN 3. The women will take the floor at 1 p.m. and the men will follow.
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