CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A fourth-quarter surge got the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team a fighting chance after some mid-game struggles, but Lamar managed to escape down the stretch to take it 63-57 Saturday at the American Bank Center.
The Islanders (14-6, 7-2 SLC) got out a 15-10 advantage after the first quarter before Lamar (14-5, 8-1 SLC) changed the tide and held a nine-point lead going into the fourth. A&M-Corpus Christi strung together an 11-0 scoring run to start the fourth and put the Islanders on top 48-46 but the Cardinals shifted that momentum to finish the game.
The arc was not kind to either team for most of the game, but it ended up being the difference as Lamar bucketed just two more field goals than the Islanders with their late threes making up the six-point margin.
Both teams were evened in the paint at 34 points and were near identical in fastbreak points, second chance points, and points off turnovers.
Senior
Mireia Aguado came out with her career-high 22 points after matching her career-high of seven made field goals, doing so in just 26 minutes. She has made seven field goals in each of the last three games. Fellow senior
Paige Allen joined her in double figures with 14 points, nearing the double-double after pulling down nine rebounds.
The Cardinals were led by the 14-point performance from Brooklyn Mitchell off the bench. She made all three of Lamar's three-pointers.
The Islanders came out hot in the paint with consecutive lay-ins from graduate
Alecia Westbrook, Aguado, and junior
Annukka Willstedt for an early five-point lead. Aguado drew the foul and completed a successful three-point play with the made free throw to go up 13-7.
The Cardinals crept back up in the start of the second, but sophomore
Bruna Anguera forced the foul to tie it 18-18 from the free throw line with a little over seven minutes to go in the first half. After a dry run, senior
Violeta Verano cut into the Lamar run and scored the inside bucket at 2:07 to get within 27-21. Westbrook beat the buzzer to score on her takeaway as the Islanders trailed 30-23 at the break.
The Cardinals extended their lead out of the half after a scoreless gap from the Islanders, but Aguado helped build momentum with back-to-back layups with under six minutes in the third. The Islanders continued to fight as Allen scored two midrange jumpers by 2:47. She then connected for a third straight time to end the third down 46-37.
Initiating a rally, the Islanders secured the first four points of the fourth as Aguado made it just a 46-41 game with 7:29 left to play. Junior
Nabaweeyah McGill netted the three-pointer at 6:50 before the steal and finish from Allen on the next possession gave the Islanders a 48-46 lead with six minutes to go. Though, a well-time timeout from the Cardinals helped stave off the A&M-Corpus Christi rally as a pair of threes down the stretch helped them to a 59-50 advantage with under a minute to play.
The Islanders close out the first half of conference play one game back in the standings. They will begin the second part of the round robin schedule on the road at Nicholls and McNeese.
NOTES
- The Islanders trail Lamar 13-21 in the all-time series. They will now look at splitting the series for the second year in a row, as both teams won on the road against each other last year. The rematch is set for Feb. 24 in Beaumont.
- The Islanders are 9-3 at home this season, 234-151 all-time at home, and 100-76 in the American Bank Center. With five home games remaining on the schedule, they are still on track to posting its third consecutive season to win at least 10 games on their home court.
- The Islanders entered the game ranked #5 overall in the NCAA in 3FG% defense with a 24.5 percent average. They held the Cardinals to a 21.4 percent shooting day from beyond-the-arc.
- The Islanders have scored at least 50 points in every game this year, the first time since 2013-14 that the Islanders have scored at least that many in each of the first 20 games of the season.
- Aguado registered her 12
th double figure scoring of the season, 14
th in her career, and sixth in a row. It is the second game in a row she scored at least 20 points after she had just set her previous career best of 21 points in A&M-Corpus Christi's last game. She is the only Islander to have scored 20+ points in a game this year.
- Allen submitted her ninth double figure scoring game of the year, 40
th in her career, and fourth in the last five games. It came off her season-high six made field goals. With nine rebounds, Allen has continue to record at least six rebounds in every conference game this year.
- Allen also matched her career-high of steals in a game with seven, first set at Wichita State on Nov. 27, 2020. It is the second time she has grabbed at least five steals in a game this year, but eighth in her career.
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