CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Brittany Mbamalu's season-high 21 points were not enough for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team to overcome 30 turnovers, as Texas A&M topped the Islanders 84-55.
""I thought they were a lot more powerful than we were," head coach
Royce Chadwick said. "They did a really good job of taking advantage of things in the paint. We knew that was going to be a problem for us coming in. We don't match up real well size-wise, the turnovers I thought were really huge for us."
The Islanders (4-4) found themselves on the wrong side of a 38-30 rebounding margin. Texas A&M (7-2) exploited the size differential by scoring 46 points in the paint, compared to 14 for the Blue and Green.
After falling behind by as many as 14 in the first quarter, A&M-Corpus Christi shaved the deficit to five on the back of a 9-0 run in the second stanza. Trailing by 13 coming out of the halftime break, the Islanders were forced the issue trying to mount a comeback, as Mbamalu and
Camesha Davis led the second-half scoring with eight and six points, respectively.
The Aggies converted the 30 turnovers by the Islanders into 33 points on the night.
"We couldn't not handle the basketball the way we need to handle the ball and we gave up offensive rebounds, especially in the second half when we had to go to the zone," Chadwick continued. "They did a really good job of attacking us and making us rotate and then when they shot it, we couldn't keep them off the boards. By far, the best basketball team we played this year and they're extremely well coached."
Brittany Mbamalu caught fire from behind the arc, en route to a game high in scoring. The Houston native drained a season-high five 3-pointers and added a perfect 6-of-6 from the line.
"It was good to see Brittany knock the rust off," Chadwick added. "She missed a couple of weeks with an injury, so it was good to see her step up in her third game back. We just need to get the rest of her game going."
Joining Mbamalu in double-figure scoring was
Brianna Jackson with 11, nine of which came in the first 20 minutes. It was the fifth time this year when two players scored more than 10 points.
ROAD TRIP TO RICE
The Islanders travel up to Houston on Thursday for the second game of their seven game road swing. Chadwick picked up his 600th career victory against the Owls last season in the Dugan Wellness Center.
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- Go Islanders -
