HAMMOND, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team earned its first road victory of the season on Thursday night, using a career-best night from graduate
Chelsea Wooten to outlast Southeastern and take home the win by a final score of 76-69.
Wooten put together one of the best individual performances in recent memory for the Islanders (5-20, 4-14 SLC), gashing the Lady Lions (4-21, 3-15 SLC) for 32 points on 8-18 shooting overall, 5-13 from three-point range and 11-12 from the free throw line while also grabbing 13 rebounds and dishing out six assists in 34 minutes. The guard set new career-highs in both points and rebounds, surpassing her previous bests of 29 and 10 in each respective category, and she also achieved the first 30-point game for any A&M-Corpus Christi player in over seven years, with the last one coming from Dae Dae Evans with 31 all the way back on January 9, 2019 in a game against Northwestern State. In addition to all of this, Wooten also hit the biggest shot of the night, draining a huge triple to break a 66-66 tie with 73 seconds to go and give the visitors a lead that they would not relinquish.
Long before the dramatics of the late game, the Islanders managed to get off to an incredible start, with the team outscoring Southeastern 24-11 over the first 10 minutes to take firm control of the game from the outset. This hot start was powered primarily by an incredible 19-0 run, which began halfway through the opening quarter and lasted all the way until the first minute of the second period. The scoring during this stretch was very well balanced, as Wooten led the way with six points while four others – redshirt sophomore
Torie Sevier, senior
Marissa Shelton, junior
Asha Walker and sophomore
Rayna Williams – followed close behind with at least three points apiece. Wooten also helped punctuate this outburst with an unbelievable shot, draining a try from halfcourt as the buzzer sounded to send the team into the first break with all the momentum.
Much like in their first meeting back in January, however, the Lady Lions started to chip away at A&M-Corpus Christi's advantage, going into the locker room at halftime chasing just eight and pulling all the way to within one in the middle portion of the third quarter. Wooten helped to stem this tide herself, though, scoring five of the next seven points to build the lead back up to five. Also pitching in near the end of the third was senior
K'Nari Holliday, who returned from injury after missing the last two games and got her own scoring going with five points in the final minute to put the Islanders up 55-49 going into the final 10 minutes.
This lead ended up being short lived, as Southeastern would proceed to score each of the first eight points of the fourth to go ahead for the first time since the first quarter before Holliday would stop the bleeding with a bucket to level the score at 57. The two teams would proceed to trade scores after this, remaining within five points on either side until the Lady Lions' Lihi Azouri drained a three to make it a 66-66 game with 1:27 left on the clock. This would set up Wooten's heroics, as on the next possession down, she received a pass from Williams at the top of the key and sank a massive triple of her own, putting the Islanders ahead for the final time on the day. Some big defensive stops on the other end for A&M-Corpus Christi would follow, and Wooten would put the exclamation point on her night with six consecutive free throw makes to ice the game away.
Aside from Wooten, the Islanders also got two other players into double figures, starting with a near double-double from Holliday with 12 points and nine rebounds in just 17 minutes off the bench in her first game back. Sevier followed right behind with 11 points of her own, reaching that mark on a perfect 3-3 shooting from the field and 5-6 from the free throw line.
The Islanders will now look to make it two in a row in the second stop of their road trip on Saturday, heading over to Lake Charles to take on conference-leading McNeese at 1 p.m.
#ShakasUp
