CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – For
Camesha Davis,
Kassie Jones and
Ashanti Plummer, Saturday was the culmination of four years of countless hours of hard work on and off the court. Surrounded by family and friends, the seniors celebrated their achievements in a pregame ceremony, before grinding out a gritty 68-65 win over the Incarnate Word in their final game on Stripes Court at the American Bank Center.
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The Islanders (12-17, 8-10) head into the Southland Conference Tournament on the back of a three-game winning streak.
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"Senior Day is always emotional," head coach
Royce Chadwick said. "I thought our girls did a good job of playing in the moment. We had an opportunity to play in front of a lot of friends, family and fans, and our girls loved that. It was an amazing atmosphere and we needed it to get the win. I thought UIW played one of the best games of the year."
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In the first half, the Cardinals (9-20, 7-11) connected on five 3-pointers to put the Blue and Green down seven late in the second quarter. Corpus Christi fired back with an 11-0 run to close the half.
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The Islanders again found themselves down at the midway point of the fourth quarter, before the Blue and Green rolled off 13 straight points to take an eight-point lead.
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As UIW cut into the lead with two minutes to play, Corpus Christi relied on the charity stripe to maintain the advantage, going 5-of-8 at the line down the stretch.
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"We missed some free throws down the stretch after having an eight-point lead with a few minutes left in the game," Chadwick added. "We made the plays down the stretch that we needed to make to come away with the win. They shot 50-percent from the 3-point line in the first half, and we held them to 23-percent in the second half. We did a better job of defending the perimeter."
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Kassie Jones went for a game-high 19 points, while the
Dae Dae Evans and
Emma Young scored 16 and 10 points, respectively.
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The Islanders outrebounded the Cardinals 43-39, for their 11th 40-plus rebound game of the season.
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ONE LAST TIME FOR THE SENIORS
>> The senior class of Jones,
Ashanti Plummer and
Camesha Davis capped their regular season careers with 59 wins over the last five campaigns.
>> Along with Jones' 19, Davis and Plummer added nine and six points, respectively.
>> Davis was one point and one rebound shy of picking up her sixth double-double of the season.
>> Plummer chipped in with seven rebounds, including three of the Islanders' 13 offensive boards.
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RECORD FOR COACH
>> With the win on Saturday,
Royce Chadwick overtook Robert Robinson for most conference wins at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
>> The Floydada native notched his 40th Southland Conference win during his five-year tenure on the Island. Â
>> Chadwick ranks second in league history with 164 wins during his 33-year career.
HEADING TO KATY
>> Corpus Christi enters the Southland Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will face Northwestern State on Thursday at 11 a.m. in Katy.
>> The Islanders are 1-0 when playing the Lady Demons in the tournament. The lone matchup came in the second round of the 2010 tournament, as the Blue and Green knocked off Northwestern State 74-66.
>> Corpus Christi will rely heavily on the experience of the three seniors and redshirt-junior
Brittany Mbamalu as the only Islanders to participate in the postseason.
STAY SOCIAL
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- Go Islanders -
