Lamar sports information

FORT WORTH – Chastadie Barrs tied the NCAA single-season record for steals, but the Lamar Cardinals saw their season come to an end with an 80-68 loss to the TCU Horned Frogs in the first round of the Women’s NIT on Thursday evening.

Barrs, who was in early foul trouble, had three steals to give her 191 for the season, equaling the NCAA mark set by Natalie White of Florida A&M in the 1994-95 season.

Jadyn Pimentel scored a career-high 23 points for LU, which was making its sixth appearance in a national postseason tournament in the past nine seasons.  Moe Kinard added 16 points for the Cardinals, who ended their season with a 22-8 record.

“I was proud of the way we competed,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “We hung tough with a team from the Big 12. Our kids got a good taste of the postseason. Jadyn really stepped it up tonight. She showed why she was the Southland Conference freshman of the year.”

The Cardinals had trouble with TCU’s height, as the Horned Frogs had a decided advantage in points in the paint, outscoring LU 40-8 from inside. TCU connected on 60.8 percent of its shots from the field for the game, going 31 of 51.

“TCU is a very good team,” Harmony said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they go far in this tournament.”

Jordan Moore had a double-double for TCU (20-12), finishing with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Moore was 10 of 11 from the field.

The Cardinals led 19-15 late in the first quarter before the Horned Frogs scored five points in the final 40 seconds of the period to lead 20-19 after the opening stanza.

TCU pushed its lead to 39-33 at halftime. The Cardinals tied the game at 50 when Baileigh O’Dell drained a pair of free throws with 3:12 remaining in the third quarter before TCU closed out the quarter on a 10-3 run to lead 60-53 heading into the final quarter. The Cardinals never got any closer than six points in the final period.

The Cardinals had three players don the LU uniform for the final time (O’Dell, Kiandra Bowers and DeA’ngela Mathis). Bowers had five points and nine rebounds. Bowers finished her career ninth on LU’s scoring list with 1,254 points and second on LU’s all-time rebounding list with 943.

O’Dell, who had eight points on Thursday, concluded her career with 181 three-pointers, tied for second all-time at LU. Mathis had nine points and four rebounds against TCU.