CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – In a battle of the top teams in the Southland Conference women's basketball standings, Southeastern Louisiana University saw its rally fall just short in a 57-50 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Thursday evening at the American Bank Center.
The Lady Lions (12-8, 8-2 Southland) dropped their second straight defensive struggle after opening league play with eight consecutive victories. The host Islanders (16-7, 8-1 Southland) avenged their 48-43 loss to Southeastern back on Jan. 27 to extend their win streak to five games and take sole possession of the conference lead.
Caitlyn Williams led Southeastern with 13 points and was joined in double figures by
Morgan Carrier, who chipped in with 12 points.
Hailey Giaratano dished out a career-high eight assists to lead SLU.
Williams and
Chrissy Brown each grabbed six rebounds to share team-high honors for the Lady Lions, though the Islanders finished with a 38-28 advantage on the boards. With six rebounds, Williams has 805 career rebounds, making her the sixth student-athlete in program history to top 800 rebounds as a Lady Lion.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was paced by Makinna Serrata, who led all players with 24 points. Violeta Verano added 16 points to go with a team-high seven rebounds and four assists.
The Islanders held a 22-21 advantage after an evenly matched opening half. The home team grew the lead to as much as 10 points late in the third quarter and went into the final period ahead of the Lady Lions, 41-34.
A three-pointer by Williams and a
Taylor Bell free throw cut the lead to 44-40 with just over eight minutes remaining in the contest. But the Islanders held Southeastern scoreless for more than six minutes and extended the lead to 50-40.
Consecutive three-point field goals by Brown and Carrier cut the lead to 50-46 with 48.9 seconds left, but Southeastern could get no closer, as the Islanders iced the game from the free throw line.
SLU will look to bounce back Saturday at 2 p.m. when it travels to face UIW. A video stream of the game will be accessible at
www.UIWCardinals.com and the game can also be heard live online at
www.LionSports.net/ListenLive.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Women's Basketball, follow @LionUpWBB on Twitter, like /SoutheasternWBB on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics has instituted a clear bag policy for all ticketed events. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit
www.LionSports.net/clear.
