Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT — Senior center LeMon Gregory recorded his second-career double-double as the Lamar Cardinals pulled away from Idaho State late Saturday evening for an 82-70 victory in the Montagne Center.

Gregory set career highs in points (21) and rebounds (11) as the Cardinals (4-3) picked up their second-straight win.

“This was a big win for us tonight,” said LU head coach Tic Price. “They are a very good three-point shooting team, and we were able to hold them to 21 percent from beyond the arc. I guess that is why they started driving to the basket more. That is one of the best teams we’re going to play in terms of attacking the basket. It’s something we’re going to have to continue to work on.”

“LeMon played really for us tonight. We have several perimeter guys who can shoot the three, and when those started to fall, it opened things up for us under the basket and LeMon took advantage,” added Price.

The Cardinals shot nearly 50 percent (25 of 52) from the field, while knocking down six three-pointers on the night. Although Idaho State was 22 of 53 (.415) from the field, they were held to just a 4-of-19 (.211) performance from beyond the arc.

Despite being outrebounded by five, the Cardinals took advantage of their depth off the bench as well as some miscues by the Bengals. ISU turned the ball over 16 times which the Cardinals converted into 21 points to finish the night plus-11 in that category. Big Red’s bench outscored the Bengals’ reserves by nearly 30 points, 43-15.

Things started out rough for the Cardinals as the representatives from the Big Sky Conference slowly built a double-digit first-half lead. Trailing by one 5 minutes into the half, ISU went on a 25-6 run capped by an Ethan Telfair three-pointer to take an eight-point lead with just under 8:30 remaining before halftime. The Bengals upped their lead to 11 after Gary Chivichyan followed suit with another ISU three just over a minute later.

Nick Garth came off the bench to score 18 points on 6-of-11 (.545) shooting, while Lincoln Davis added 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Kevin Booze finished the night with 14 points, five assists and three steals.

ISU leading scorer Ali Faruq-Bey finished the night with 16 points – below his season average – but was only 3 of 11 from the field, and 0 of 6 from beyond the arc. He did most of his damage at the free throw line where he connected on 10 of 15 attempts.

WOMEN

PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 80, LAMAR 72

PRAIRIE VIEW – Lamar women’s basketball coach Robin Harmony saw her young team play with a fiery passion that was missing earlier in the season despite dropping an 80-72 decision to host Prairie View A&M in a non-conference game Saturday evening.

“We’re getting better,” Harmony said. “The effort was there tonight, we’re just making some mistakes that are the result of inexperience. We just have to learn to play hard for 40 minutes and finish games.”

The Cardinals (2-5) led for most of the contest, holding a 26-17 advantage after one quarter and taking a 44-35 lead into intermission. The Cardinals led 57-54 after three quarters only to see Prairie View A&M (4-1) outscore LU 26-15 in the last period.

Addesha Collins had a career-high 25 points off the bench for LU, while JaMeisha Edwards added 17 points.