Box Score ABILENE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team entered Saturday's game in need of a win against the Southland Conference regular season champion Abilene Christian. A fast first half start lifted the Wildcats to a 63-52 victory over the Islanders.
A collective team-effort in the second half, led by Kassie Jones and Gee Lawler, came up short, as the Blue and Green had its season come to a close, missing out on a spot in the SLC Tournament by one game.
"We didn't make the adjustments we needed to have to win," head coach Royce Chadwick said after the game. "We were not aggressive enough, just two fouls against them in the first half proved that. We allowed them to have too many offensive rebounds, which was one of our keys. We need to get better and make changes in order to put ourselves in contention next year."
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The Islanders (10-19, 6-12) fell behind in the first half, as Wildcats guard Alexis Mason tallied 15 of her game-high 20 points in the opening two quarters. 11 offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes for the hosts kept the Islanders at bay, despite 38-percent shooting for the visitors.
Down by 12 at the half, the Islanders needed a major comeback in order to keep their postseason hopes alive, and they did not disappoint. Kassie Jones dropped 14 or her team-high 19 points over the last 20 minutes, as the Islanders outrebounded ACU by a 23-14 margin during that span.
31 points off 21 turnovers gave the Wildcats enough space to withstand the 18-10 run by the Blue and Green in the final two quarters. The Islanders registered 14 steals, with 10 coming in the second half, but the visitors could only turn those into 16 points.
A&M-Corpus Christi entered the game averaging six 3-pointers per game and 35.9-percent shooting from long range. On Saturday, one of the strengths for the Islanders was not on point, as a Jones and Jennifer Ramirez connected on the only shots from downtown, leading to a season-low 11-percent shooting from deep.
Lawler chipped in 10 points as the only other Islander in double figures. On the boards, Camesha Davis led the way with seven, followed by Maddisen Turner with six. Jones and Turner both made three steals on the night for the Blue and Green.
NOTABLE STATS
• With the season on the line, Kassie Jones turned in two of her best performances of the year. Shooting a combined 40-percent between the Houston Baptist and Abilene Christian games, the Lufkin native averaged a team-high 17 points.
• Camesha Davis recorded her 32nd block of the year to tie Ashanti Plummer for most rejections in a season since 2004-05.
• The Islanders tallied their third consecutive 10-win season, the longest stretch since 2010.
THE SENIORS
Head coach Royce Chadwick will look to fill the shoes of Shola Adebayo, Shay Weaver, Ramirez and Lawler, who capped their careers with 43 wins for the Blue and Green.
Weaver etched her name in the record books as the sixth-most prolific scorer in school history with 12.8 points per game. Ramirez broke into the top-10 in career assists, finishing with 187 in her two years on the Island. 90 steals for Adebayo will leave her in second place on the all-time list.
Gee Lawler finished her two-year stint at A&M-Corpus Christi with a strong run over the last five games of the year. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich., native finished with seven points and 3.6 rebounds per contest, dating back to Feb. 17.
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