Cardinal women open Southland play on road

Published 4:42 pm Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT – The Lamar Cardinals, the preseason favorites to win the Southland Conference women’s basketball title, open conference play with a pair of road games this week. The Cardinals are at the Houston Baptist Huskies at 7 p.m. Thursday before traveling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for a clash at 5 p.m. Saturday with the host Islanders.

 The Cardinals (5-5) are looking for their first win in a road game this season. LU is 1-5 in games away from the Montagne Center, going 0-4 in road games and 1-1 in neutral-site contests.

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 “I think everything we’ve done so far has prepared us for Southland Conference play,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “We’ve played some tough teams on the road, which should help us.”

The Cardinals, who finished 15-3 in conference play last season, swept the season series from both the Huskies and Islanders last season. LU was an 81-53 winner at Houston Baptist before claiming a 74-22 win over HBU at the Montagne Center. Against the Islanders, LU was a 65-49 winner at home before rallying for a 74-63 win at Corpus Christi.

Moe Kinard leads LU in scoring, averaging 15.1 points per game. Chastadie Barrs averages 13.3 points per game, while leading LU with 67 assists and 64 steals. Barrs, who has at least one steal in all 71 games in her career, leads the nation with an average of 6.40 steals per game. She enters the HBU game with 329 career steals, four shy of the all-time LU record of 333 set by Ramona Jones. Barrs is also closing in on the Southland Conference career record of 359 steals set by Nina Randle of Louisiana-Monroe.

Houston Baptist (4-6) is led by Amanda Johnson, who averages 16.3 points per game. The Huskies are 4-0 at home in the cozy confines of Sharp Gymnasium this season.

 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7-4), which hosts Central Arkansas on Thursday afternoon before entertaining LU on Saturday, is 5-1 at home this season, but those home games were all played on campus at the Dugan Wellness Center. Saturday’s game will be the Islanders’ first game in the American Bank Center this season.

Brittany Mbamalu leads the Islanders in scoring, averaging 12.3 points per game.

 “Four of our first five games in the conference are road games, which is tough, but we have to be ready,” Harmony said.

 Thursday’s game at HBU will be shown on Team1Sports, which is available on Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Android TV and Roku. Saturday’s contest at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will be broadcast live on KLVI -AM 560 with Harold Mann providing the play-by-play. Saturday’s game at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is the opening contest of a doubleheader, with the men’s game between the Cardinals and Islanders slated for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

 LU’s next home game is 7 p.m. Jan. 3, when New Orleans comes to the Montagne Center for a Southland Conference clash. There will be free T-shirts courtesy of Coca-Cola while supplies last. In addition, fans will have the opportunity to win LU merchandise as part of the New Year, New Gear! Promotion. The LU freshmen will sign autographs for all fans after the game.

After the New Orleans game, LU is at defending Southland Conference champion Central Arkansas on Jan. 6 before traveling to Southeastern Louisiana on Jan. 10.