CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker to East Texas A&M in the first game of their final homestand of the season on Thursday evening, going right down to the last shot but falling by a final score of 56-55.
Despite the tough loss, the Islanders (5-22, 4-16 SLC) did see one of their own achieve a significant milestone on Thursday, as senior
K'Nari Holliday scored the 1000
th point of her collegiate career with a basket at the 6:58 mark of the fourth quarter. After playing at Barry University and West Georgia over the first three years of her time in school, the Apopka, Florida native made the final push toward history in the blue and green, scoring 199 total points this season to get over the hump with just two games left to go. Holliday becomes the first player to reach the 1000-point threshold in an A&M-Corpus Christi uniform since
Paige Allen, who joined the club herself back on November 26, 2024 in a game against UTEP.
In what ended up as a back-and-forth affair all throughout the night, it was A&M-Corpus Christi that got the jump first, winning the first quarter 17-11 after shooting 53.8 percent from the field and holding the Lions (13-14, 9-11 SLC) to just 25 percent on the other end. This edge was primarily brought about by hot starts from both graduate
Chelsea Wooten and senior
Samora Watson, with the former tallying seven points on a perfect 3-3 shooting and the latter coming in right behind with six off the bench.
This momentum quickly swung in the other direction, however, as East Texas A&M managed to outscore the Islanders by the same exact tally in the second to send things into halftime all knotted up at 28 apiece. From there, the game devolved into a defensive slugfest, with the two combining to score just 17 total points in the third while shooting 5-33 from the field between them. It was the Lions who found a 9-8 advantage at this time, though, sending the hosts into the fourth chasing by one.
The biggest run of the day for the Islanders came in the first portion of the final frame, as they managed to score seven consecutive points on a basket from redshirt sophomore
Torie Sevier, Holliday's milestone bucket and a three from junior
Asha Walker to take a 48-41 lead and force East Texas A&M into a timeout. Out of this stoppage, the visitors answered back immediately, responding with nine straight points of their own to regain a two-point advantage. This swing would end up being stopped by redshirt senior
Trinity Slocum, who nailed a huge three pointer from the corner to put A&M-Corpus Christi back in front with 3:42 to go.
After this, the pace would slow down once again, with the only score over the next two minutes coming from East Texas A&M to switch the lead once again. Watson managed to break the spell for the Islanders with a tough turnaround jumper, and after the Lions answered with a shot of their own on the next possession, the guard once again made things happen offensively, drawing a foul and knocking down both free throws to go up one with 52 seconds left. A&M-Corpus Christi's defense could not hold the Lions off the board, however, surrendering a bucket in the paint to once again to go down 56-55. Given one more chance at taking the lead for good, Watson got a nice look with four seconds left, but her midrange jumper drew iron, and East Texas A&M secured the rebound to run out the remainder of the clock.
On the day in which she made history, Holliday also led all scorers in the game overall, tallying 14 points while also grabbing 11 rebounds to secure her fifth double-double of the season. Watson came in right behind Holliday with 13 points in what was easily her best showing since returning from a seven-game injury absence, and Wooten rounded out those in double figures with 10 on 4-9 shooting from the field and 2-4 from deep.
The Islanders will now play their final home game of the season on Saturday, hosting Northwestern State at the Hilliard Center at 1 p.m. The team will honor its seven seniors on this day, with a special ceremony set to take place after the game's conclusion.
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