A strong second half surge from Lamar doomed the Sam Houston women's basketball team to 70-45 loss Saturday at Johnson Coliseum. With their second-consecutive loss, the Bearkats fell to 5-6 in Southland play.

The Bearkats got within a point of Lamar with 12 minutes to play before the Cardinals went on a 15-0 run to take a 51-35 lead. SHSU wouldn't recover from that run and were outscored 19-10 the rest of the way.

“I think we played a good game in the first half,” said head Bearkat coach Brenda Welch-Nicholls. “We just couldn't buy any buckets in the second half. We've got to regroup to get ready for next week. We have to play better defense.”

Lamar started the second half on a 7-0 run to take a 32-25 lead before the Kats rallied early in the second half.

The first half ended with the teams knotted up 25-25. It was an extremely even first half with both teams shooting right around 30%. There were five ties and five lead changes in the first period.

Angela Beadle led the Bearkats with 12 points and 17 rebounds. Beadle was the only SHSU player to score in double figures. Nyha Carter scored eight points and pulled down eight boards. Jasmine Johnson, Morghen Day and Kristina Smith each added six points.

Lamar got strong scoring efforts from three players. Dominique Edwards scored 20 points to lead the way while Kiandra Bowers added 17 and Gia Ayers scored 16.

The Bearkats shot 28% from the field for the game while Lamar hit 43% of their shots. SHSU turned it over 22 times and LU scored 14 points on the fast break.

LU outscored the Kats 34-14 in the paint.

Sam Houston will host a pair of games next week. Northwestern State comes to Johnson Coliseum Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and the Kats host Stephen F. Austin Saturday at 1:30 p.m.