CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker on Saturday afternoon, falling to Incarnate Word in its first overtime game of the season by a final score of 63-55.
Prior to Saturday, the last time that the Islanders (12-14, 4-11 SLC) went to an extra period in a game came on March 2 of last season, when they took down Southeastern Louisiana on Senior Night at the American Bank Center. The loss was the second of the year for them against the Cardinals (15-10, 10-6 SLC), as they were also taken down in San Antonio back on January 18.
Coming off of one of their largest wins of the season on Thursday, the Islanders were blitzed by UIW to start things off, falling into a hole after allowing the visitors to get on the board for the first eight points of the game. They answered back right after this, however, managing to cut the lead to as low as two before the end of the first quarter. The reserves were what keyed this run, with junior
Samora Watson tallying four straight points on a pair of free throws and a fastbreak bucket and senior
Jaeda Whitner getting started by knocking down a triple on her first attempt of the day.
This energy carried into the next period, primarily on the strength of A&M-Corpus Christi's defense. The team tightened the screws on the Cardinals in a big way, holding them to just six points on 2-11 shooting throughout the entirety of the second while also forcing four turnovers. This level of defensive effort also helped keep up the momentum on the offensive end, starting with a 6-0 run powered by a pair of buckets by Watson and graduate
Mireia Aguado that brought the game back even. Near the end of the frame, junior
Monae' Duffy got going with a three-pointer and another bucket in the paint with just 40 seconds left on the clock, which put the Islanders in front going into the break.
In similar fashion to the start of the game, UIW came out of the half very strong, tallying eight of the first nine points to turn a two-point deficit into a five-point advantage. This would turn out to be the largest lead for the remainder of regulation, however, with the Islanders clawing back quickly and playing even with the Cardinals for much of the remainder of the game. The next true swing of momentum did not come until there were just 70 seconds remaining on the clock, when after a block by Duffy on the other end, Aguado slashed into the lane and sank a beautiful finger roll to put the hosts up by four.
This looked to be a lead just large enough for A&M-Corpus Christi to hold onto for the final minute, but it did not turn out that way, as UIW managed to draw fouls on back-to-back possessions and hit four of its five free throws to tie the game once again. The team had a chance win it at the buzzer despite this, but with two ticks left on the clock, a travel was called that effectively sent the game to overtime. It was here where the Cardinals found their new lease on life, using this wave to come out with the first six points of the bonus period. The Islanders, understandably deflated after the events of the end of regulation, could not find the magic from earlier in the game, getting their deficit to within four but not any closer after trying and failing to play the foul game.
In a game that was tight throughout, the biggest tipping point was easily UIW's ability to get to the line, as they managed to shoot nine more free throws than the Islanders on the day and converted on seven more. A&M-Corpus Christi especially strayed away from its discipline on defense near the end of the game, allowing the Cardinals to reach the stripe 15 times combined between the fourth quarter and overtime while also enabling them to shoot 44.4 percent from the field in that time after they had posted a mark of just 35.1 percent through the first three quarters.
On the individual side, the best performance of the day for the Islanders came from Watson, who recorded her highest-scoring game of the season with 12 points while knocking down four of her nine shots from the field, one of her three tries from distance and each of her three shots from the line. The other player to join Watson in double figures was graduate
Paige Allen, who tallied her fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds while also pitching in four steals as well.
The Islanders will now try to shake off the tough loss when they head out to Louisiana on their last road trip of the season next week, first traveling east to Thibodaux to square off against Nicholls at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday before then heading to Lake Charles for a very important matchup with McNeese on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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