SAN ANTONIO – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team was taken down in its weekend stop at UIW on Saturday afternoon, dropping the first of back-to-back games against their opponents from San Antonio by a final score of 90-73.
The Islanders (3-15, 2-9 SLC) found themselves in a hole right from the outset, falling victim to a red-hot opening quarter from the Cardinals (9-8, 8-3 SLC) in which the hosts came out with 29 points on 9-15 shooting from the field while draining four tries from downtown. The visitors were able to respond with a pair of triples from junior
Asha Walker and four points apiece from graduate
Chelsea Wooten and junior
Torie Sevier, but even with this, they still entered the next period down 14.
UIW's lead continued to grow during the second quarter up to a high mark of 22, at which point A&M-Corpus Christi started to progressively chip its way back into the game. The effort started with a steady stream of free throws, with the team knocking down five shots from the line over the last portion of the first half -- including four from senior
Marissa Shelton -- to go into halftime down 49-31. Out of the break, this deficit would decrease even further, as the Islanders managed to cut it down to as low as 11 near the end of the third frame after ripping off a 20-8 run over a span of seven minutes. Leading the way during the stretch that got them back into things were Shelton and Wooten, with the former going a perfect 6-6 from the line and the latter scoring the same amount on a pair of hits from downtown.
This furious run gave the Islanders new life moving into the fourth, but unfortunately for them, the Cardinals found their stroke from distance once again, knocking down four threes to move their total on the day up to 14. This neutralized what was a 22-point quarter for the A&M-Corpus Christi on the other end, keeping the team from moving any closer and sending it home with the unfortunate defeat.
The three-point margin ended up being the biggest deciding factor in the game, as despite a 49 percent to 45.2 percent advantage in overall field goal percentage for the Islanders, the Cardinals still made this up by shooting a scorching 14-34 from deep as opposed to just eight makes on 18 tries on the other end.
A&M-Corpus Christi was led in scoring by redshirt sophomore
Torie Sevier, who came off the bench with 20 points on an efficient 8-10 shooting from the field while also grabbing three rebounds and posting a pair of blocks. Shelton was next up with 14 points while knocking down 11 free throws in 13 attempts to set a new single-game high in makes for the team this year, and Wooten and Walker rounded out those in double figures with 13 and 12 respectively. Beyond this group, redshirt senior
Trinity Slocum led the team in assists with six and tied for the team lead in rebounds with four.
The Islanders will now get their chance at revenge in their next game, heading back home to host UIW at the Hilliard Center on Thursday at 7 p.m.
#ShakasUp
