CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team closed out 2025 with a bang in its New Year's Eve game against New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon, riding a historic shooting performance in the first half to cruise to a wire-to-wire victory by the final score of 85-54.
The Islanders (2-9, 1-3 SLC) blitzed the Privateers (0-12, 0-4 SLC) from behind the arc, knocking down 12 of 25 tries from downtown overall and a blistering hot 10 of 15 in the opening two quarters, which helped them jump out to a massive early lead. Junior
Asha Walker was responsible for the majority of these all by herself, with the guard knocking down six triples in the first half alone to match her career-high that she also reached on two separate occasions this year. This helped Walker pour in 21 points in total on the day, which surpassed two separate 18-point efforts to become the new single-game best of her three-year career.
Walker's scoring output wasn't even the highest of the day for A&M-Corpus Christi either, as senior
Samora Watson managed to put in 24 points of her own on an efficient 7-13 shooting from the field and 9-11 from the free-throw line, which surpassed a 23-point performance from redshirt sophomore
Torie Sevier in the season opener against College of Biblical Studies on November 3 as the highest single-game total for an Islander this season. This was also the Louisiana native's high mark since coming to the Island prior to last season, and it was her eighth different time reaching double figures this year after only doing so five times in 29 games in 2024-25.
Much like in their game against Nicholls two days earlier, the Islanders got off to an incredibly fast start on Wednesday, jumping ahead 26-9 after the first 10 minutes thanks to some stifling defense and a 4-7 start from downtown. Their biggest run of the afternoon came during this period, an 11-0 swing that had them up by double digits before six minutes had even come off the clock. This stretch was powered by Walker and senior
Marissa Shelton, with the former knocking down a pair of threes in quick succession and the latter draining a triple herself after securing a board on the offensive end.
In different fashion from the game against the Colonels, however, A&M-Corpus Christi managed to sustain this hot start as the game went on, further burying the Privateers with a 23-9 second quarter that gave the hosts a 31-point advantage heading into the break. The Islanders knocked down six more threes during this frame to bring their total up to 10 in the first half, which now stands as the most in any single half in program history, surpassing the previous benchmark of nine reached on three separate occasions. Walker was the catalyst with three more, including the record-breaking 10
th to give her six on the day, and Watson, graduate
Chelsea Wooten and redshirt senior
Trinity Slocum each pitched in with one apiece.
Now possessing one of their biggest leads of the season so far, the Islanders were able to coast throughout the remainder of the game, getting the lead up to a high point of 39 before playing even the rest of the way to take things to the finish line with no issues. This time was when Watson did the majority of her work, as she helped further extend the team's cushion by scoring 15 of her 24 points in the second half.
A&M-Corpus Christi found an edge over New Orleans in a number of different categories, most notably on the boards, where it grabbed 50 rebounds in total as opposed to just 29 secured by the Privateers. The Islanders also outscored the visitors from both three-point territory and the free-throw line, going positive by a whopping 33 points in the former and six from the latter.
Beyond Walker and Watson, the Islanders also got strong performances from both Sevier and sophomore
Rayna Williams, with the team's starting frontcourt each recording double-doubles. In her first-ever start with the team, Sevier poured in 12 points and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds, and Williams nearly matched her with 10 points and 10 rebounds of her own, both of which either tied or set her own personal bests. This matched the number of double-doubles that the entire team had produced through the first 10 games, as the only other instances were from Wooten on November 3 against College of Biblical Studies (13 points and 10 assists) and senior
K'Nari Holliday on November 26 against Oral Roberts (15 points and 15 rebounds).
The Islanders will now try to carry this momentum into their next game over the weekend, as they travel down south to square off with UTRGV on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union.
#ShakasUp
