Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT  – The Lamar Cardinals look to start another winning streak when they travel to Huntsville to take on the Sam Houston State Bearkats in a Southland Conference women’s basketball game at 6:30 tonight.

The Cardinals (11-4 overall, 4-1 Southland) saw their 10-game winning streak end with a loss at Abilene Christian on Saturday. The string was the second-longest win streak in program history. Meanwhile, Sam Houston State (0-15, 0-5) is looking to break into the win column for the first time this season after advancing to the Southland Conference Tournament finals last year.

“We can’t take any team lightly,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “Sam Houston State beat us twice last season, and this game will be at their place. We have to play for 40 minutes.

LU enters the week tied with Abilene Christian and McNeese State for second place in the conference, one game behind Stephen F. Austin. Sam Houston State, the only winless team in the conference, is already fighting for its tournament life.

“They’re hungry for a win,” Harmony said of the Bearkats. “They’re going to have their fans supporting them. We have to be ready.”

LU comes into tonight’s game as one of the top defensive teams in the nation. The Cardinals lead the country in turnovers forced (25.6 per game) and in steals per game (14.3). LU is second in turnover margin at 9.93.

LU’s Chastadie Barrs leads the nation with an average of 4.53 steals per game, while Kiandra Bowers tops the nation in offensive rebounds, grabbing 5.93 per contest. Barrs leads the conference in assists at 6.5 per game, while Bowers leads the SLC in field-goal percentage at 60.1 percent. Bowers is 23-of-26 (88.5 percent) from the field in the last three games.

Moe Kinard leads the Cardinals in scoring at 16.7 points per game. Bowers averages 13.2 points per game and leads the SLC in rebounding with an average of 10.1 boards per game.

Harmony hopes the team learned from Saturday’s 77-59 loss at Abilene Christian, a game LU led 36-35 at halftime.

“We were able to overcome the mistakes we were making during the winning streak, but they all came together on Saturday and we were unable to overcome them,” Harmony said. “We had our chances to go up by seven in the third quarter, but we missed our opportunities. You saw our youth there. We had no one to step up and help pull us back together.”

Sam Houston State is led by Jasmine McCants, who averages 9.1 points per game overall, and 11.6 points per game in conference play.

Tonight’s game is the second of three straight road games for the Cardinals, who are at Nicholls State at 1 p.m. Saturday before returning home to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 5:15 p.m. Jan. 25.

Tonight’s game will be streamed live on ESPN3.