LAKE CHARLES, La. – The reigning Southland Conference champions Southeastern Louisiana University women's basketball team remain undefeated in conference with a 77-63 victory sparked in overtime against McNeese in the Legacy Center Saturday afternoon.
Career afternoons by sophomore
Jalencia Pierre (21 points) and junior
Dijone' Flowers (10 points) helped Southeastern (8-7, 4-0 SLC) to secure the win charged by a 35-10 run midway in the fourth quarter to close out overtime.
Cheyanne Daniels also contributed double digit scoring with 18 points and eight rebounds along with
Hailey Giaratano adding in 12 points. Southeastern's bench heavily impacted the contest with a 24-0 advantage in bench points led by Flowers shooting 57.1 percent from the field.
Allasia Washington and
Kennedy Paul came off the bench tying with six points, Washington also had a season-high of six steals versus the Cowgirls (4-13, 0-4).
Daniels helped the Lady Lions continue its dominance in the post, as Southeastern finished with a 44-26 advantage in points in the paint. SLU has outscored all four league opponents in the paint.
Southeastern turned up the pressure late in the second half to force McNeese into 25 turnovers, though three players for the Cowgirls finished in double-digit scoring. Mireia Yespes led all scorers with 26 points and 14 rebounds to finish the afternoon with a double-double. Azjah Reeves (16 points) and Emilia Tenbrock (14 points) also proved to be tough matchups for the Lady Lions.
McNeese came out with a spark to start the game with a 25-7-point advantage in the first quarter and held the lead for the majority of the game until the fourth quarter. Southeastern bounced back in the second quarter to win every quarter onward with a 51-31-point advantage at the end of the fourth quarter. The game came down to the wire by a clutch three-pointer from Pierre with five seconds left on the clock to force the game into overtime.
The Lady Lions took control with a 14-0-point advantage early in overtime as Southeastern's defense forced the Cowgirls into multiple back-to-back turnovers. SLU continues to lead the conference in turnover margin (+5.27).
Southeastern will be back in the Pride Roofing University Center for two back-to-back home games in week three of conference play. SLU will matchup against Northwestern Thursday at 6 p.m., then face Texas A&M-Commerce Saturday at 1 p.m. The Lady Lions would like to extend a special welcome to the Hammond Community on Jan. 20 for Family Day.
Both matchups will be televised on ESPN+ and can be heard online at
www.LionSports.net/ListenLive. Junior
Mackenzie Thomas will be the Spotlight Player of the Game for the contest on Jan. 20 versus Northwestern, while Saturday's contest will honor
Terri Crawford. The first 150 fans will receive trading cards featuring the SLU juniors, courtesy of PRIDE.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Women's Basketball, follow @LionUpWBB on X, like /SoutheasternWBB on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit
www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern offers mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.
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.
