Kats edge Islanders 79-76
Three last-minute blocked shots by junior post player Angela Beadle gave the Sam Houston women's basketball team a narrow 79-76 win over A&M-Corpus Christi Thursday at Johnson Coliseum. The win improved the Bearkats to 5-3 in league play.
With the Kats leading the Islanders 77-76 with 31 seconds left, Beadle stuffed back-to-back Islander shots to hold the lead. After a Jasmine Johnson free throw, the Islanders had one more opportunity that the Beadle blocked to seal the win.
Beadle was held to just nine points and seven rebounds in the game, both below her season average, after being in foul trouble most of the game.
“With Beadle's size, skill and experience she has to really contribute to this team,” said Bearkat coach Brenda Nichols. “When the going gets tough she's got to step up and she did that tonight. That final stretch she stepped up and did what she had to do.”
A&M-Corpus Christi led at the break after a sloppy first half that saw a combined 23 fouls and 17 turnovers. Starter Nyha Carter joined Beadle on the bench after each picked up two fouls early in the game and sat for the majority of the half.
Maggie Lorenz came off the bench to score a career high 13 points and pull down a career high eight rebounds. Summer Fife also scored a career high total of 11 points.
The Kats had leads in the opening minutes after Amanda Barnes hit her first two three-point attempts of the half. The Islanders led most of the way, shooting 56% in the first period.
A&M-Corpus shot just 29% in the second half while the Kats remained consistent shooting 44% in the first period and 45% in the second.
“At halftime I told the team we have 20 minutes left in this game. If we change our rebounding and go after it hard we'll be ok. We didn't get out of our game plan and the players did a really good job of running our game plan in the second half,” Nichols added.
SHSU had as much as a nine point lead with about four minutes to play before the Islanders cut it to one in the closing seconds.
Jasmine Johnson was the Bearkats leading scorer with 17 points. Amanda Barnes added 13 and Lorenz finished with 16.
Brandi Huff and Jasmine Shaw each scored 13 points for the Islanders. Lexy Harris added 11 and Kassie Jones chipped in 10.
The Bearkats are back in action against Houston Baptist Saturday at Johnson Coliseum at 1:30 p.m.
