Box Score NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Shooting struggles for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team led to a 72-59 loss at Stephen F. Austin on Saturday afternoon, as the Ladyjacks captilized on 22-percent shooting for the Islanders in the third quarter to outscore the visitors 21-7 and create a sustainable lead going into the fourth. Kassie Jones finished with a team-high 13 points for her sixth outing in double figures this season.
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"I thought we started the game very sluggishly," head coach Royce Chadwick said. "We committed way too many turnovers and weren't aggressive enough after the first few minutes. They would come up and trap our guards. We would get the ball out of the trap and we didn't turn it over there. We would lock down after that, instead of attacking the basket.
"27 turnovers came from us getting out of the trap and making mistakes at the next level. You need to make plays when you get opportunities, and we did not do that tonight. The free throw line hurt our comeback. We ended up going 70-percent, which meant we would hit one and miss the other, and that took a lot of air out of us when that happened."
The Islanders (8-16, 5-8) found themselves trailing after the first two quarters of play as a result of 36-percent shooting and just one 3-pointer, which came from Brittany Mbamalu with 53 seconds remaining in the second period.
Free throws kept the Blue and Green close in the first half. A&M-Corpus Christi hit on 9-of-12 free throws in the first half, finishing the contest at 19-of-26, 73-percent.
The turning point of the game came in the third quarter. Despite cutting the lead to four at the halftime break, the Islanders could not match the streaky shooting of SFA (13-10, 7-5). The Ladyjacks rolled off a 25-6 run, behind 64-percent shooting in the third period, to open the lead to as much as 21.
Jones provided the spark for A&M-Corpus Christi to fight back in the fourth quarter. The Islanders cut the lead to 11 with 2:45 to play, but Taylor Ross tallied six of her game-high 25 points in the remaining time to secure the victory for the hosts.
Unlike the previous meeting this season when 13 3-pointers proved to be the difference maker for SFA, the Ladyjacks capitalized on 32 points in the paint, opposed to 24 for the Islanders. Turnovers limited A&M-Corpus Christi from mounting a comeback, as 27 giveaways turned into 25 points for the Ladyjacks.
In addition to Jones' performance, Camesha Davis led the way on the glass for the Islanders with nine rebounds. Maddisen Turner had another productive day for the Blue and Green, scoring eight points with five rebounds and a career-high three blocks.
"Kassie had a whole bunch of fans here today," added Chadwick. "She lives about 20 miles away from here, so it was good that her family was able to come watch her play. She did some really good things for us today, and she did a good job of adjusting to us playing her at the point."
WHAT'S NEXT
The Islanders return to the Coastal Bend on Wednesday for their first meeting of the season with league leaders Abilene Christian at 7 p.m. in the Dugan Wellness Center.
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Photos from Stephen F. Austin Athletics
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