Swain Scores 23 As Cajuns Defeat SLU, 86-77
LAFAYETTE – Troi Swain scored a season-high 23 points and Jaylyn Gordon had 22 to lead the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns to an 86-77 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Monday evening at the Cajundome.
Gabby Alexander recorded a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Cajuns.
Louisiana (5-3) led 7-6 when Jodi Quinn knocked down two free throws with 7:12 left in the first quarter.
Southeastern (2-7) jumped in front 14-8 when Charliee Dugas made a layup with 5:06 remaining in the first period.
The Lions extended their lead to 22-12 when Bre Warren made two free throws with 2:40 left in the first quarter.
Louisiana cut the lead to 23-20 after Jasmine Thomas made a layup on a fast break with 49 seconds to go in the first period.
Dugas connected on a three-pointer with seven seconds left in the opening quarter and Southeastern led 26-20 at the end of the first frame.
The Cajuns tied the game at 28-28 when Swain drained a three-pointer with 7:49 left in the second quarter. Swain was 5-for-8 from beyond the arc in the game.
Alexander made a layup to give Louisiana a 38-35 lead with 3:30 left in the second period. Swain knocked down a three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining in the second frame and the Cajuns led 47-44 at halftime.
Louisiana extended its lead in the second half to 53-47 when Quinn connected on a jumper with 7:26 left in the third quarter. Two free throws by Alexander gave the Cajuns a 57-49 lead with 4:03 remaining in the third period.
Nekia Jones made a layup to give the Cajuns a 62-57 lead with 1:13 left in the third frame.
Southeastern trimmed the lead to 64-63 at the end of the third quarter when Jaclyn Scholvin had a three-pointer with three seconds remaining in the period.
Louisiana went on a 13-4 run to open up the fourth quarter and led 77-67 after Gordon converted on a four point play with 5:53 left in the game.
The Cajuns led by as many as 16 points in the closing minutes on their way to the win.
Southeastern was led by Dugas with 28 points while Taylin Underwood had 18 for the Lions.
Louisiana will return to action when it concludes a five-game homestand on Thursday, Dec. 22 hosting Louisiana Tech in a 7 p.m. contest.
Deer Scores 15 As Bobcats Roll Past Sam Houston State 69-46
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Taeler Deer registered her sixth double-digit scoring performance of the season with 15 points to lead Texas State past Sam Houston State by a 69-46 final in women’s basketball action Monday evening.
Deer, who has led the Bobcats (4-6) in scoring four times this season, finished 5 of 10 from the floor, while dishing out six assists. Also in double-figures for Texas State were McKinley Bostad and Ti’Aira Pitts with 11 and 12 points, respectively. Bostad was also the Bobcats’ top rebounder with a career-high seven caroms.
Texas State closed the game outshooting the Bearkats (0-10) 40.6 percent (28 of 69) to 28.6 percent (14 of 49). The Bobcats also outrebounded Sam Houston State 44-37 and outscored the Bearkats 36-10 in the paint.
Jennifer Oramas paced the Bearkats with a game-high 18 points on three field goals and a 10 of 11 effort at the free-throw line.
Texas State opened the game 5 of 5 from the floor with five different Bobcats finding the bottom of the net, establishing an 11-2 lead over the Bearkats. Texas State’s hot shooting would not continue as the Bobcats made just one of their next 13 attempts. However, the Bobcat defense limited the Sam Houston State offense to 25 percent shooting and forced seven turnovers en route to a 13-6 first quarter lead.
Both teams struggled to score in the early stages of the second quarter. Texas State led 21-15 when Pitts made a move down the lane for a layup off the glass at the 5:17 mark. The score sparked a 13-4 Bobcat run that left the home team up 34-19 at the intermission. The run featured scores by five Bobcats, including a pair of 12-foot jumpers by Whitney Apari.
Zandra Emanuel pushed Texas State ahead 41-29 with a pair at the free-throw line with 5:49 remaining in the third quarter; however, Sam Houston State would score the game’s next six points to trim the Bobcats’ margin to 41-35. Following a Texas State timeout Kaitlin Walla sank a 3-pointer from the left wing, Deer then converted an old-fashioned 3-point play and made her second triple of the game to reestablish the Bobcats’ double-figure lead at 50-35 entering the fourth quarter.
Sam Houston State’s Lydia Baxter split two free throws to open the fourth quarter’s scoring. Pitts answered with her fourth bucket of the night, Bostad hit a 3-pointer off an extra pass by Walla and a minute later Jones scored in transition to push the Bobcats’ lead to 21 points at 57-36. Sam Houston State would get no closer than 19 the rest of the way as Texas State picked up its fourth win of the season.
Texas State concludes its nonconference slate Thursday (Dec. 22) at North Texas. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.
COLD SHOOTING NIGHT SINKS JAGUARS, 74-31 TO NC STATE AT HOME
MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama's women's basketball team (5-5) recorded just 10 points and suffered a nearly 16 minute stretch without a field goal in the first half as the Jaguars fell 74-31 to NC State (10-3) on Monday night at the Mitchell Center.
NC State lead by just one point four minutes into the game after Colby Davis hit a layup and Genesis Perrymond hit a three-pointer for the Jaguars' first five points. The Wolfpack then went on a 28-0 run that started at the 5:31 mark in the first quarter and lasted until Davis hit a pair of free throws with 2:35 remaining in the second quarter. Davis then hit a three-pointer on the Jag's last possession of the half with 38 seconds left, and NC State entered the half leading 39-10.
"I thought we came out and just couldn't make a shot," said head coach Terry Fowler. "I really think it affected the defensive end of the floor. They're a great shooting basketball team, and on the defensive end we gave up open looks. There were warm up threes that they were hitting. I was just really disappointed in the lack of competing that we did on the defensive end of the floor. There are nights that shots fall or don't. Tonight we just couldn't get anything to fall. You look at the stats and we have nearly the same amount of attempted shots as they did. We just couldn't get anything to fall."
The Wolfpack shot a blistering 50% (13-26) from the field and 66.7% (6-9) from the three-point line while the Jags only shot 12% (3-25) from the field and 18.2% (2-11) from three.
In the second half, South Alabama would shoot the ball slightly better, connecting on eight of its 33 attempts for 24.2% percent, but the Wolfpack would not allow the Jags to get any closer than 24 points and shot 41.2% in the half.
South Alabama scored the first five points of the second half with Chyna Ellis scoring a layup on a put back after an offensive rebound and Perrymond hitting a second three-pointer on the next possession. NC State responded with a 15-2 run.
The fourth quarter featured the closest action of the game as NC State outscored South Alabama 18-12 in the quarter. Shaforia Kines hit two three-pointers in the quarter, and Camryn London added another three as well.
NC State finished with a 47-38 rebounding advantage and outscored South Alabama 32-6 in the paint and 16-0 in points off turnovers. South Alabama finished with only 14 turnovers, the second least amount in a game this year.
Perrymond lead the team in scoring with eight points along with three rebounds and one steal. Davis had seven points and two rebounds and an assist. Erin Autio pulled down a game-high nine rebounds and had one steal.
South Alabama will head up north to take on intrastate foe UAB on Wednesday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. for one final game before the holiday break.
Red Wolves Rally for Win in Vegas
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (12/19/16) – Tahlon Hopkins hit a runner in the lane with 30 seconds to give Arkansas State a one point lead and Brittany Fowler knocked down two free throws with seven seconds to go to help propel the Red Wolves to a 70-67 victory over Kennesaw State on the first day of play at the Puerto Rico Classic (in Las Vegas) at the South Point Arena.
A-State (2-8) trailed by 10 with 7:55 to go in the game, but slowly began to chip away at the Owls’ lead thanks to a 9-0 that closed the margin to 61-60 with 4:41 remaining. Jada Ford tied the game a 66-66, but the Owls Clara Young made a free throw on the other end of the floor to put her team up a point.
Hopkins answered for A-State with her runner in the lane and then a chaotic situation unfolded on Kennesaw State’s end of the floor when the Owls’ were awarded a timeout on what appeared to be a jump ball situation. Kennesaw State failed to capitalize after Young was whistled for an offensive foul with 8.2 seconds to go. Fowler was immediately fouled on the inbound pass and hit both free throws to put the Red Wolves up three with 7.4 seconds left.
Kennesaw State managed to get off two 3-point attempts before time expired, but neither came close to going in and A-State came away with its second win of the season.
“This was one of those game’s where it just came down to which team was going to be the last one standing,” A-State head coach Brian Boyer said. “We are already down two starters and then we had another sick and then we get into early foul trouble, but that flipped near the end because I think at one point all four players they had on the court had four fouls and we were able to take advantage of that and be more aggressive driving to the basket and honestly that won us the game.”
Ford paced three Red Wolves’ in double-figures with 21 points, while Hopkins and Dominique Oliver scored 13 each. Hopkins was also a perfect 7-of-7 from free throw line as the Red Wolves finished 18-of-22 as a team from the charity stripe.
“Tahlon was huge today for us and made some really big shots and even had a few more that just didn’t fall, but she did a great job of using her athleticism and was really aggressive,” Boyer said. “I’ve never seen a team like this because we shoot free throw extremely well at home, but struggle on the road and to make 18 today was big and was a big reason why we were able to get back into this ball game.”
The Owls looked to have command of the game in the third quarter when they took their largest lead of the afternoon at 52-41, but the Red Wolves answered with a 7-0 run to get within four with just over a minute left in the period.
Arkansas State dug itself out of an early hole after the Owls went on a 9-0 run to take 14-8 lead in the first quarter until Hopkins knocked down four straight free throws and Bradshaw hit a turnaround jumper in the lane to even the score. The Red wolves took lead after Ford drove the base line for a layup to go up 16-14, but it would be short lived.
Kennesaw State responded by turning up the pressure defensively and went into a full court press that resulted in three straight turnovers on as many possessions for the Red Wolves that allowed the Owls to take a 23-22 after the first quarter.
The lead grew to 33-29 with under five minutes left in the half, but Ford knocked down a 3-pointer as time wound down in the half get the Red Wolves within 35-32 at the break. Ford led A-State with 10 points in the half, while Oliver had seven points.
The Red Wolves return to action Tuesday afternoon when they will take on Northern Kentucky in the second game of the Puerto Rico Classic (in Las Vegas). Tipoff is set for 4:15 p.m.