Islanders Take a Loss to Top-Ranked Cardinals

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi faced one of its toughest weekends of the Southland Conference schedule this Thursday and Saturday, facing preseason No. 1 Lamar just two days removed from holding court with preseason No. 2 Central Arkansas. Leading the nation in steals per game entering Saturday's game at the Corpus Christi Athletic Club Court inside American Bank Center, the Cardinals' dropped the hosting Islanders 70-31.

While the Blue and Green fell behind 33-11 in the first half, the Islanders kept ahead of the Cardinals on the boards with a 20-16 advantage, led by a six-spot from starting senior guard Brittany Mbamalu. Corpus Christi's defense performed well against an aggressive Cardinals offense during the opening half, but a low scoring from the hosts gave visiting Lamar the advantage after 20.

Sophomore Dalesia Booth continued to have the hot hand in the first half, knocking down two-of-four to finish the opening two terms with five points. Booth's shooting in the opening half has been huge for the Islanders over the past two weeks, hitting 15 of 22 from the field (68.2%) over the past three first halves she's played in. 

After missing her team's past two starts with injury, junior Uri Jolivette went a perfect three-for-three from the field while knocking down a field goal in the post and a pair of mid-range jumpers. The starting center scored four points in the second half, with sophomore Tiara Matthews doing the same in 10 minutes off the bench in the latter 20 minutes. 

With 11 Islander turnovers in the second half, Lamar's early lead would be too much for the Blue and Green to overcome at the end of the night, moving to 0-2 to start conference play. 

"I thought that the press offense that we used to start the game got us a couple of looks, then we got real tentative when we missed a couple of shots. We changed our press offense a little bit, put more of an onus on our point guards and I thought we were able to slow down a little bit and play a little better," said Head Coach Royce Chadwick in a postgame interview. "We've got to do a better job of keeping our tempo and playing the tempo that we want to play"

"We have to regroup, we've got to get our team ready to go, check this tape out, have our players correct what we can correct and get ready for Northwestern."

• Although the Islanders start the SLC season at 0-2, the Blue and Green turned around that same result from last year to reach the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament
• Senior Kre'Ana Henry tied Jolivette with a team-high six rebounds, the most she's recorded off the bench since playing against Texas A&M-International to open the month of December
• The Islanders outblocked the Cardinals five to three on the night. They've tied or beaten their opponent in rejections this season in all but two games
• Tiara Matthews led her team with two blocks, tying the career-high she boasted against McMurry earlier this year
• Mbamalu is 26 points away from becoming the eighth Islander in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark, her average of 11.1 per contest slates her to reach that goal on the road against New Orleans later this month

COMING UP NEXT
The Islanders open the New Year with a road matchup at SLC rival Northwestern State on January 3rd. The Blue and Green is 9-5 against the Demons all-time, with three of those wins coming in Natchitoches. The Islanders' road contest against NSU, along with all other Corpus Christi road games, can be heard via the Islander Digital Network radio broadcast, powered by AEP Texas.

STAY SOCIAL
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