HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University women's basketball team protected its home court with a dominant 80-41 victory over UTRGV Thursday evening in the University Center.
Three Lady Lions (9-3, 3-0 SLC) finished in double figures to help improve the squad in its undefeated run of 3-0 in conference play over UTRGV (6-8, 1-2 SLC). Junior guard
Allasia Washington led all scorers with 18 points, five rebounds and two steals. Washington produced a spark off the bench for Southeastern in its 39-point win, shooting 2-5 from the field with a career high 14-17 from the free throw line.
Jalencia Pierre closed out the game with an outstanding performance of 15 points, three steals and led the team on the boards with a season high eight rebounds. Senior guard
Alexius Horne followed up with 14 points and six rebounds, shooting 5-9 from the field and 4-6 from the three-point line.
SLU came out to a great start with a 7-2 run in the opening minutes of the first quarter as the Lady Lions took control of the game early. Southeastern attacked from different levels to contribute to its early lead over the Vaqueros.
Arianna Patton knocked down a three midway in the quarter to ignite the Lady Lions as
Taylor Bell (nine points) went to work early in the paint with back-to-back buckets. SLU closed out the first quarter with a 14-7 lead over UTRGV.
UTRV worked to recover, but Southeastern limited every opportunity for the Vaqueros on the offensive end with its stifling pressure. The Lady Lions opened the second quarter continuing to stay in the driver seat as Bell proved to be a miss-match problem in the paint. UTRGV gained a sliver of momentum midway in the second quarter as the Vaqueros used Southeastern's aggression against themself to earn opportunities at the charity stripe and bring the game within 11-points. SLU remained unphased as it continued to assert its dominance in the paint with 14 paint points and seven fast break points in the second quarter alone. The Lady Lions secured a 33-21 advantage to end the first half with all the momentum in their favor.
The Vaqueros returned from halftime with an edge to try and cut into the deficit as Kade Hackerott (eight points) connected on a few buckets but Southeastern quickly worked to break any of the visitor's confidence. SLU's bench also provided a spark in the third quarter defensively while chipping in 12 points to extend its lead. Charlotte O'Keefe (nine points) produced a run midway in the third quarter, finishing 3-8 from the field and 3-3 from the free throw line for UTRGV. Although the Vaqueros developed a short run, the Lady Lions regained their footing with 10 fast break points to enlarge their lead, 58-35.
Southeastern entered the fourth quarter on a roll in every aspect as its defense continued to pick UTRGV apart in the half court. SLU's starters retired for the night early in the quarter, as its bench allowed no drop off in the score and continued to push ahead. The Lady Lions shot 66.7 percent from the field and 60.0 percent from the stripe in the fourth quarter alone to showcase a commanding performance in the opening week of league play. Southeastern secured 46 points in the paint, 39 bench points, 24 points off turnovers and 21 fast break points. SLU held UTRGV to 20.7 percent from the field and forced the Vaqueros into 17 turnovers.
The Lady Lions will return to the University Center Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Saturday's game against the Islanders will be televised on ESPN+. Fans are encouraged to join SLU as it raises awareness for the special needs/disabilities' community for the All-Abilities Game and Autism Awareness.
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.
