CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team picked up its most important win of the 2024-25 season on Saturday afternoon, stunning Southeastern Louisiana – the regular season Southland Conference champions – by a final score of 54-52 and clinching its spot in the conference tournament soon after.
With the win, the Islanders (15-15, 7-12 SLC) handed the Lady Lions (25-4, 19-1 SLC) their first and only loss in conference play, as they came to the American Bank Center riding a 19-game winning streak that started all the way back on December 18. A&M-Corpus Christi went up 1.5 games on ninth-seeded McNeese as a result, and after the Cowgirls lost their matchup against Lamar soon after, it officially secured the team the eighth and final spot in the tournament.
On a day where the Islanders honored the six seniors on their roster with a ceremony before the game, the team came into play looking incredibly energized once tip off finally rolled around, getting off to an incredible start and jumping out to a large early lead. They kicked things off by lighting the net on fire from beyond the arc, converting on a trio of three-pointers in their first three shot attempts from senior
Tymberlin Criswell and graduates
Nabaweeyah McGill and
Paige Allen, and they followed that up with an Allen steal into a Criswell basket in transition that put them up 11-2 just over two minutes into the game and forced an early Southeastern timeout.
Another triple from Allen brought the advantage up to double digits for the first time on the day, and after a quick Lady Lions run, the Islanders closed out the first with a pair of free throws from Criswell and a bucket in the paint from McGill to go up by a score of 20-11. The arrival of the second quarter was not kind to the home team, though, as out of the break, Southeastern started to show why they sit at the top of the conference. A&M-Corpus Christi tallied just eight points total in the period, shooting 4-12 from the field and 0-6 from distance in a departure from how it started. The team also turned the ball over seven times, which helped the Lady Lions get their offense going to the tune of 19 points to turn their deficit into a two-point lead at halftime.
The game would go on to devolve into a rock fight in the third, with the two teams scoring just 17 points combined over the next 10 minutes. The Islanders would get the upper hand in this exchange though, winning the quarter by one thanks in large part to the contributions of junior
Monae' Duffy off the bench. Duffy scored four of the team's nine points in the quarter, dished out two assists and grabbed a whopping seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end that helped extend possessions for an offense that badly needed it.
This back and forth brought A&M-Corpus Christi to within just one entering the fourth, where it would continue to exchange blows with the Lady Lions. The two essentially traded points for much of the period, building the tension by playing to two different lead changes and a tie game at 48 with just 3:11 to go. At this point was when the Islanders made their push to knock off the favorites, going ahead with a pair of free throws from senior
Annukka Willstedt and then getting a massive and-one from Criswell, who let out a roar after putting the team up five with 83 seconds left on the clock.
Southeastern would manage to get back to within one after this, which forced the Islanders to come through defensive stops on the last two possessions. The first of these came in the form of a charge, with graduate
Mireia Aguado sliding her feet and drawing a big offensive foul with just a few seconds to go, and the next came when multiple players contested a long heave at the buzzer that secured the signature upset victory.
When they needed it most, the Islanders once again relied on their defense to come through, keeping Southeastern to its lowest point total of the season while holding them to just 39.6 percent shooting from the field. They also did not allow the Lady Lions to make a single three pointer while making five from behind the arc themselves, which went a long way toward winning the math game on the night.
In a fitting turn of events, it was a trio of seniors that led the way in scoring for the Islanders on the day, starting with 14 from Criswell in her fourth straight game scoring in double figures. Right behind the guard were both Allen and McGill at 10, with the former adding nine rebounds to go along and the latter matching her season high with five blocks that came all in the first 10 minutes of the game. Duffy also came up big on the boards, grabbing 12 to lead all players in the game by a good margin.
The Islanders will now wrap up the regular season on Wednesday, hosting Lamar at the American Bank Center at 7 p.m. in what will be their final tune up before heading to Lake Charles.
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