Lamar sports information

SAN ANTONIO – DeA’ngela Mathis scored 19 points to lead four players in double figures as the Lamar Cardinals matched the longest winning streak in program history with their 10th straight victory with a 71-47 win over host Incarnate Word in a Southland Conference women’s basketball game Wednesday.

The 10 straight wins match the 10-game winning streak fashioned by last season’s LU squad.

The Cardinals (18-6 overall, 13-1 Southland) broke open a close game with a dominating third quarter. LU led by just six points, 35-29, at halftime before outscoring UIW (3-21, 2-11) 27-6 in the third period to lead 62-35 heading into the final stanza. The win kept LU a half-game ahead of Stephen F. Austin for first place in the Southland Conference standings. SFA held on for a 59-58 win over visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday.

“Coming out of halftime, we took over and that’s where we put the game out of hand,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “I’m not happy with the way we started. It seems we take teams lightly. We can’t keep playing like that. It’s going to come back to haunt us.”

Kiandra Bowers had 15 points for LU. Moe Kinard had 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while Jadyn Pimentel added 10 points a career-high seven rebounds and a game-high six assists.

“J.P. [Pimentel] played well. DeA’ngela hit her first three shots of the game,” Harmony said. “We had a couple of kids who didn’t feel well, but we just had to sub off the bench, and we didn’t miss a beat.”

LU shut down UIW’s long-range attack in the second half. UIW was 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) from three-point range in the first half, but was just 1-of-11 (9.1 percent) after the break.

UIW had trouble with LU’s defense, as UIW had 28 turnovers on the night, allowing LU to compile a 29-12 advantage in points off turnovers. It’s the third straight game that the Cardinals held their opponents to less than 50 points.

“We came out and pressured them and got steals,” Harmony said. “We made our offense from our defense.”

Imani Robinson led UIW with 13 points, while Olivia Noah added 11 points off the bench in the loss.

UP NEXT

LU returns to the Montagne Center, where it was won 26 straight games, for a pair of contests to close out the home portion of the regular-season schedule. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi provides the opposition at 2 p.m. Saturday before Houston Baptist comes to town for LU’s Senior Night at 7 p.m. Feb. 21. The 26-game home winning streak is the second longest in the country, behind only UConn’s 74-game string.

“We have to defend the nest,” Harmony said. “Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is playing really good basketball right now. We have to come out and play for the full 40 minutes. We can’t afford two bad quarters like we had today.”

 Following the two home games, the Cardinals close out the regular season with a pair of road contests. LU is at SFA on Feb. 24 in a game that could decide first place in the conference. LU wraps up the regular season at McNeese on March 3. The conference tournament runs from March 8-11 at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy.