HAMMOND, La -- The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team could not complete the sweep in the second leg of their Louisiana road trip on Saturday afternoon, taking home a tough loss at the hands of Southeastern Louisiana by a final score of 75-62.
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The Islanders (9-5, 1-2 SLC) had their four-game winning streak snapped with the defeat, with their last loss prior to this one coming back on December 14 at home against Stephen F. Austin in their first conference game of the season. It also broke a streak of eight consecutive games decided by single digits against Southeastern (10-3, 4-0 SLC), with the last contest between the two to be decided by more than that coming on January 2, 2021 in a similar 71-58 loss in Hammond.
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The action on Saturday started out well enough for the Islanders, who got out to a quick 9-4 lead thanks to five early points from senior
Annukka Willstedt. After this, however, the team struggled mightily with holding onto the ball, turning it over a total of five times in a span of five minutes. This led to a whopping 15 points off of those turnovers on the other end for Southeastern, which was the biggest factor in the Lady Lions taking a seven-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
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These woes would continue to plague A&M-Corpus Christi into the second, adding six more to its total to make it 11 going into the break. Some good shot making helped to counteract this a little bit, with the team knocking down five of its 10 shots in the period and getting a pair of triples from Willstedt and senior
Tymberlin Criswell to keep the offense rolling, but the giveaways kept the math in the favor of Southeastern as things rolled on. This culminated near the end of the quarter, when the Lady Lions ripped off a 9-2 run to bring the Islanders' deficit to 14 points heading into halftime.
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Southeastern did not let up from there, coming out of the break by forcing three more turnovers in the first three and a half minutes and using those to extend its advantage up to a game-high 18. The Islanders' best punch after this came in the final frame, when they ripped off an 11-2 run powered by four points from junior
Monae' Duffy to bring the score up to 59-51, the closest it had been since late in the second quarter. The Lady Lions quickly stomped out this comeback effort, however, scoring the next 12 points to rebuild their lead up to 20 and put A&M-Corpus Christi behind the eight ball for good.
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By the time things had settled, A&M-Corpus Christi ended up losing the turnover battle to Southeastern 20-12, with the Lady Lions turning theirs into 23 points on the other end as opposed to just 12 for the visitors. The Islanders also were dominated down low on the day in a departure from what they normally do, giving up 40 points in the paint while scoring only 16 themselves.
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Despite the loss, the Islanders still got a solid showing from graduate
Paige Allen, who got up to 16 points in her 25 minutes of action on 4-7 shooting from the field. She also managed to knock down two of her three attempts from downtown – making it four hits over her last two games – and all six of her tries from the free throw line. After Allen, Willstedt was the only other player on the team to reach double figures, scoring 13 while also grabbing five rebounds and dishing out four assists.
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The Islanders will now try to regroup in their next taste of game action next week, returning back to Corpus Christi to take on Northwestern State on Thursday after the American Bank Center. Following that one is the first South Texas Showdown of the season, with UTRGV coming to town on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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