WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Bowers’ 22 boards, Barrs’ 11 steals lead to Cards’ 22nd straight home win

Published 7:20 pm Saturday, January 20, 2018

Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT — Kiandra Bowers and Chastadie Barrs each had double-doubles as the Lamar Cardinals overpowered the visiting Sam Houston State Bearkats 91-44 in a Southland Conference women’s basketball game Saturday afternoon.

Bowers had 15 points and a career-high 22 rebounds for her 29th career double-double, while Barrs finished with 21 points and 11 steals. Barrs, who leads the nation in steals, now has at least one steal in all 78 games in her career.

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The win was the 22nd straight victory at the Montagne Center, eclipsing the 21-game streak that spanned the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

“I have 22, but I want 23,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “We want to continue to make that number higher. We call this our nest, we want to defend our nest. We don’t want to lose at home in front of our fans. It’s terrible to lose, it’s even worse to lose at home. We’ve established this tradition of winning at home, and we want to keep it going.”

The Cardinals scored the first six points of the game on back-to-back 3-pointers by Moe Kinard and Jadyn Pimentel, but struggled for a bit after that, as the Bearkats fought back to take a 15-13 lead with 4:09 remaining in the opening quarter. That seemed to spark the Cards, who went on a 15-4 run to end the quarter leading 28-19.

The second quarter was all Lamar, as LU (11-6 overall, 6-1 Southland) outscored the Bearkats (3-13, 0-7) 22-6 in the period to lead 50-25 at halftime.

“Sam Houston came out and hit open shots because we allowed them to get those looks,” Harmony said. “But we settled down after that.”

The Bearkats had trouble with LU’s defense, committing 41 turnovers on the afternoon. LU, which committed 20 turnovers, had a 47-13 advantage in points off turnovers.

“To cause a team to have 41 turnovers is amazing,” Harmony said. “We wore them down, that’s what our defense does.”

LU continued the onslaught in the second half, outscoring Sam Houston State 28-10 in the third quarter to lead 78-35 heading into the final period, where the Cardinals emptied the bench, but still outscored the Bearkats 13-9 over the final 10 minutes.

Barrs and Moe Kinard had 21 points each to lead LU. Barrs had seven rebounds and eight assists to go along with her double-double, just missing her fourth triple-double of the season. Jadyn Pimentel had 15 points, five assists and five steals for the Cardinals.

“Chas just missed a triple-double for the second straight game,” Harmony said. “She is going to get that fourth triple-double or her first quadruple-double soon.”

Rachel Harrell had 11 points for Sam Houston State, which suffered its 11th straight loss. LU now holds a 34-27 advantage in the all-time series. Under Harmony, the Cardinals are 7-2 against the Bearkats.

LU returns to action at 6 p.m. Wednesday with a road contest at Nicholls State before coming back to Beaumont for a four-game homestand that starts at 2 p.m. Jan. 27 against archrival McNeese State.