CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team could not get into the win column in its return back home on Monday evening, playing tight with Nicholls but ultimately falling in the final minutes by a score of 63-57.
The Islanders (1-9, 0-3 SLC) got their return to the Hilliard Center started with a stifling defensive effort in the opening frame, allowing the Colonels (6-4, 2-1 SLC) to score just 10 points across the first 10 minutes of the evening while holding them to a paltry 1-14 shooting from the field. This strong start on that end helped to power up their offense, as they poured in 24 points of their own at the same time on the strength of 6-13 shooting overall and 10 makes from the free throw line. The attack turned out to be very balanced during this stretch, with junior
Asha Walker leading the way with six points on a pair of three pointers and seniors
Samora Watson and
K'Nari Holliday following close behind with five and four respectively.
From here, though, Nicholls started to chip away at its 14-point deficit, outscoring A&M-Corpus Christi 17-10 in the second quarter to bring the hosts' lead down to seven at the break and then 18-10 in the third to take its first lead since the very beginning of the game. This set up a race to the finish over the final 10 minutes, which began with a free throw from Watson and a layup by Holliday to give the Islanders their lead back with 7:10 to go.
A back-and-forth ensued from here, with the Colonels scoring each of the next six points before the Islanders responded with a 4-0 run of their own capped off by a bucket from sophomore
Rayna Williams to level the score up with just two minutes to go. Now firmly in crunch time, the pendulum would end up swinging back toward Nicholls, as the visitors answered right back with a pair of free throws and a second-chance basket to go back up by four. Two free throws from Watson would once again bring the hosts back to within two, but this would be as close as they got, failing to close the gap fully after the visitors iced the game with a pair of baskets under 60 seconds that put things out of reach.
The top scorers on the day for the Islanders ended up being Walker and Watson, who both finished with 12 points as the only two players in double figures. For the former, these points were all scored from behind the line, as she knocked down four of her seven tries from downtown to make it three games this season with at least four triples. On the other hand, Watson got her work done primarily from the line, getting to the stripe a whopping 16 times and putting in 10 to set the new single-game highs in both categories this season. Before Monday, the last Islander to make at least 10 free throws in a game was
Nabaweeyah McGill back on January 13, 2024 in a game against New Orleans, and the last one to attempt at least 16 was Jade Davis on the same date 14 years earlier in 2010 against Texas State.
The Islanders will now have a quick turnaround to their next contest, returning back to the Hilliard Center on Wednesday for a New Year's Eve clash against New Orleans at 1 p.m. CT.
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