Cardinal women grab first road win
Published 10:10 pm Thursday, January 21, 2016
- Lamar’s Baileigh O’Dell drives past Taylor Schippers of Stephen F. Austin during Thursday’s Southland Conference game. Hardy Meredith/ Stephen F. Austin State University
Lamar sports information
NACOGDOCHES — Baileigh O’Dell netted a career-high 25 points as the Lamar Cardinals collected their first road win of the season with a 64-60 win over Stephen F. Austin in a Southland Conference women’s basketball game Thursday night.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Cardinals (7-11 overall, 3-4 Southland). LU is now 1-9 on the road this season.
“It feels great to get that first road win of the season,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “It just feels good to get that first win in a while.”
The Cardinals led from wire to wire in this one, leading 22-9 after one quarter and 33-24 at halftime thanks to some hot shooting. LU was 13 of 28 (46.4 percent) from the field in the first half, including 4 of 9 (44.4 percent) from three-point range over the first 20 minutes.
SFA (7-10, 1-5) cut the Cardinals’ lead to two points on two occasions in the final 30 seconds, but LU got some big stops on defense and hit some crucial free throws to seal the win.
“It was our freshmen and sophomores who did it tonight,” Harmony said. “They stepped up when we needed them to.”
O’Dell, a sophomore guard was 8 of 12 from the field, including 6 of 9 from three-point range. She was also 3 of 3 from the free-throw line. But she wasn’t alone.
Freshman forward Kiara Desamours just missed her fourth career double-double, finishing with 15 points and nine rebounds. Freshman guard Chastadie Barrs had 10 points, four assists and four steals. Sophomore forward Laka Blache added seven points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
“We did a good job of handling their pressure,” Harmony said. “We kept our composure just long enough to win. Hopefully, we can build off of this.”
Taylor Ross led SFA with 23 points. The Ladyjacks struggled from outside, shooting just 21.1 percent (4 of 19) from three-point range.
The Cardinals won’t have much time to savor the win, as they return to action at 2 p.m. Saturday when they hot Houston Baptist in a Southland Conference game at the Montagne Center. That’s the opening contest of a basketball doubleheader, with the men’s game between HBU and LU to follow at 4:30 p.m. Both games will be shown on ESPN3 and aired live on KLVI-AM 560.
