CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team took care of business in their return to play on Sunday, dominating Schreiner from start to finish en route to a 90-38 victory.
The Islanders (8-4) wrapped up their nonconference slate with the win, finishing with eight victories in 11 attempts against non-Southland opponents. They also continued their stretch of dominance against the Mountaineers (2-9), taking home their sixth win in as many tries in the matchup while increasing their average margin of victory up to 44.5 points.
The eight-day layoff between games did not slow down the Islanders at all, as they came out and put their first points on the board just three seconds into the game on a bucket by graduate
Mireia Aguado immediately after securing the opening tip. This was the beginning of what ended up becoming a 23-5 first quarter onslaught, with the team shooting 9-18 from the field while holding Schreiner to just one make on eight attempts and forcing a whopping nine turnovers. The Islanders had seven different players get on the board in the opening period, led by six points on a pair of threes by senior
Annukka Willstedt and five from Aguado.
A&M-Corpus Christi would continue to build its advantage from here, going up by 25 heading into the break and reaching a game-high lead of 55 late in the fourth quarter. The biggest knockout punch came in the form of a 13-0 run, which started with 51 seconds left in the third and spanned nearly halfway through the final period. The returning
Nabaweeyah McGill made her presence felt in her first game in more than three weeks during this stretch, with the graduate tallying seven quick points and knocking down her first three pointer of the season in the process.
The Islanders controlled nearly every aspect of this one, starting by forcing 11 more turnovers than their opponents and scoring 31 points off of the 25 giveaways committed by Schreiner. Beyond this, the home team outscored the Mountaineers in points in the paint 42-14, second-chance points 14-4 and bench points 50-18. They also won the rebounding battle by a wide margin, grabbing 47 against just 23 from Schreiner.
This all-around showing was powered by a number of different standout individual performances, with the best of which coming from Duffy, who tallied game-highs for either team in points with 17 and rebounds with 12. The Louisiana native scored nine of her points and grabbed four of her boards in the fourth, which helped her secure her first double-double in an Islanders uniform.
Coming in right behind Duffy in scoring was Aguado, with the Spainard continued her recent excellent form by putting up 14 on 5-6 shooting from the field while knocking down both of her attempts from deep. Joining her in double figures were senior
Jaeda Whitner, who knocked down four of six shots from downtown en route to 12 points and senior
Tymberlin Criswell, who poured in 10 to make it four games in a row reaching that benchmark.
The Islanders will now hit the road to Louisiana to resume Southland Conference play, heading first to the Big Easy on Thursday to take on New Orleans at 6:30 p.m.
#ShakasUp
