Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT — The Lamar women’s basketball team conducted its first official practice of the 2018-19 season at 5 p.m. Monday at the Montagne Center.

The 14 members of the 2018-19 Cardinal women’s basketball team have had informal workouts for the past few weeks, but Monday’s session is the first full one in preparation for the season opener on Nov. 6 at Louisiana.

“We were able to work on some things, but you don’t have the continuity when you’re only working with the players a few days a week,” LU coach Robin Harmony said. “Now we can go for two to 2½ hours each day. We have to get our newcomers up to speed.”

The 2018-19 squad features 10 Cards returning from the 2017-18 squad, including starters Chastadie Barrs, Moe Kinard, and Jadyn Pimentel. Barrs took home Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year, first-team All-Southland, and Academic All-Southland honors after tying an NCAA record for steals in a single season, and Kinard joined her on the first team and the All-Academic team. Pimentel was the conference’s Freshman of the Year.

“I think that looking at our team coming back from the summer that our players have improved,” said Harmony. “Chaz improved remarkably, Mo got better, and so did JP, and it’s really to them that they worked on their game during the summer. I really wasn’t expecting them to lift their game that much, but it’s incredible how much of a difference we can already see from this time last year. As long as we stay healthy, I think that we have more talent this year than ever before.”

Accruing a 22-8 overall record and an astounding 17-1 mark in Southland play, the Cardinals were a perfect 13-0 at home last season. After making an appearance in the semifinals of the SLC tournament, Lamar made its sixth trip to the postseason in nine years when it represented the Southland in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

Joining the returning members of the 2017-18 squad are three freshmen — Angel Hastings, Miya Crump, and Umaja Collins — and senior transfer student Amber Vidal. The new Cardinals are highly expected to bring an unprecedented amount of depth to the team and even compete for starting roles.

“We also have three freshmen joining us this season, two of which could possibly be starters,” said Harmony. “Angel Hastings was a Top 100 guard in the nation, and Maya Crump is definitely a Power 5 kid that got overlooked.

Both of them can flat-out ball, and though I don’t know how soon they’ll get into the starting lineup, they definitely have the talent to be there. But, even if they don’t make it into the starting lineup, it’s really nice to have a sixth or seventh man coming off the bench, which would give them plenty of time to learn our system. I truly believe we’ve got six or seven student-athletes on our team now that are Power 5 talents that chose to come to Lamar so they could be impact players.”

The Southland Conference poll is expected to be released soon, as is the 2018-19 Preseason All-Conference teams. The Cards are expected to have several members on the All-Southland squad and be at or near the top of the poll when it is released.