The victory upped Sam Houston's Southland record to 5-0, marking only the second time in 24 years in the league the Bearkat women have won their first five league contests. The 1998 team was the first to accomplish the feat. The Kats stand 11-8 for the season.

A&M-Corpus Christi (2-16, SLC 0-5) was led by Adriene Scott with 19 points and Anitra Jeffery with 15. Sam Houston's victory marked the first time the women's team has defeated the Islanders since TAMUCC joined the Southland. The Islanders had won their last nine encounters with SHSU. The only other victory ever by a Bearkat women's team over TAMUCC was in 2003.

The Islanders held two brief leads in the first half. But a three-point basket by Thomas with 11:46 started a 14-0 run for Sam Houston over the next eight minutes to put SHSU up 29-15.

Zoey Vega-Vega ended the run with a layup at the 6:08 mark but Sam Houston ended the half outscoring TAMUCC 29-6 in the final 11 minutes of the period.

"We've got 11 games left but being five-and-oh (in conference action) is an amazing feeling," SHSU sophomore forward Britni Martin said. "We're super excited. We get hyped up before every game and we get hyped up after every game. We take it one game at a time. We don't forget that at all, but we're really excited about this year."

Even though Sam Houston sophomore post Sequeena Thomas, the Kats'  second-leading scorer, ran into foul trouble with 10 minutes to play in the first half, players such as Martin and sophomore forward Clarke Davis filled the void.

Martin began to find her range and hit three treys. Davis, meanwhile, caused headaches around the basket for the Islanders, collecting eight rebounds and scoring seven points.

"We never really like it when Sequeena gets into foul trouble, so we try to protect her from that," Martin said. "But if it happens, we prepare for it. Our freshmen have really stepped up. All of our post players have really stepped up.

"Clarke did a great job. She really stepped up, too. Sequeena is our big shot-blocker and always guards the best post player, but Clarke's defense is amazing. She's one of our best defensive players."

From the 11:46 mark until halftime, Sam Houston outscored A&M-Corpus Christi 29-6 to go into the break up 42-21.

"We started out a little slow and that's unusual for us," SHSU head coach Brenda Nichols said. "We kind of got out to a slow start and we picked it up. Once we got it going, we got a taste of it and weren't going to stop."

Even in the second half, the lead never tapered off.

The Islanders pulled to within 13 points with a little more than 13 minutes to play, but that's as close as they would get.

With starters getting some rest midway through the second half, Zoe Tucker and Nyha Carter, a pair of true freshmen, filled in and were able to match the Islanders basket for basket.

"Nyha Carter, what a game she had. Nine points and seven rebounds, that was huge for us. Zoe Tucker came in and had eight rebounds in just five minutes. That was great for us," Nichols said.

Saturday's game was also a rematch from the first round of last season's Southland Conference tournament. The Islanders knocked the Bearkats from the SLC tourney with a 77-57 victory, marking the third time that A&M-Corpus Christi had defeated Sam Houston during the 2009-10 campaign. The Islanders defeated SHSU 76-69 in overtime in Huntsville and then squeaked out an 81-80 win in Corpus Christi in the regular season.

"They beat us in the first game of the tournament (last March) and it was heartbreaking," Martin added. "We wanted them bad this year."

Next up for the Kats is a road game at Stephen F. Austin (2-2, 5-12) on Wednesday and then the second meeting with UTSA (4-1, 8-10) in San Antonio on Saturday afternoon.