Ladyjacks’ Win Streak Snapped as Cardinals Slip Away in Beaumont, 79-65

Saturday, February 3

Beaumont, Texas

2:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

9-117-4/ SLC

Lamar

10-115-6/ SLC

Stephen F. Austin

Lamar University

Ladyjacks’ Win Streak Snapped as Cardinals Slip Away in Beaumont, 79-65

2/3/2018 5:37:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

SFA falls despite forcing 22 Lamar turnovers

By: Kevin Meyer | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

BEAUMONT, Texas – All good things must come to an end, and a double-digit win streak for the second straight season is no different. Stephen F. Austin women's basketball saw its Southland-best 11-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday despite a strong effort on the road at Lamar, as the Cardinals slipped away late by a misleading 79-65 score. With the loss, SFA falls to 17-4 on the season and 9-1 in SLC play, as well as falling to 4-4 on the road this season.

Taylor Jackson has 23 points and Chanell Hayes added 18 points and three assists for the 'Jacks. SFA was able to completely shut down Southland assist and steals leader Chastadie Barrs (0 points, four fouls) and held the conference's fourth-leading scorer Moe Kinard to just ten points (4-10 FG, four TO's).

The decisive edge in the game was a resurgent third quarter effort by the Cardinals, who outscored SFA 25-18 in the frame to erase a five-point lead for SFA at the break. A 24-12 edge in the fourth quarter iced the game for Lamar, with the Cardinals tacking on nine of those points in the final two minutes.

After rampaging through most of the teams on its schedule with high-intensity press designed to generate turnovers, Lamar found no such easy target in SFA. The Ladyjacks were able to break the press time and time again in opening quarter, and has little trouble finding high percentage looks, both inside and at the arc, where they went 4-8 in the opening quarter. Jackson went on a tear in the opening stanza, hitting a trio of three-balls to net half of her team's points, and would combine with Hayes to score all of SFA's 18 points in the quarter, as they combined to shoot 7-9 from the floor and 4-5 from beyond the arc to start the game.

In the second quarter, Hayes and Jackson would continue to lead the way for the Ladyjacks, scoring the opening six points for SFA in the stanza before Parker cracked the scoring column with her layup with 3:28 remaining to cut the Lamar lead to 27-26. That layup was part of an 11-2 run by SFA, which led them to a 33-29 lead with 1:49 remaining in the quarter. After a free throw by the Cardinals got them to 30 points, Jackson ended the quarter with a layup with six ticks left on the clock to send SFA into the locker room with a 35-30 lead.

Trailing at the half seemed to awaken something inside the Cardinals, who came out in the third and reclaimed the lead with a 28-15 margin over the 'Jacks. SFA briefly took a 39-32 lead in the opening minutes on a three-pointer by Imani Johnson, only to see the Cardinals score seven straight to erase the lead. After Hayes converted a three-point play, Lamar kept up the heat with back-to-back baskets to retake the one point lead, 43-42. The game would be tied again with 2:01 remaining, when a Lamar basket made the score 50-50, but the Cardinals would string together five points to SFA's three the rest of the way to take a 55-53 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals would open the fourth quarter with a three pointer, which was immediately answered by a trey from Marissa Banfield. After Lamar hit another three to jump ahead 61-56, the Ladyjacks strung together a layup from Kennedy Harris and a Johnson triple to tie the game up at 61 apiece. Unfortunately, the Ladyjacks then entered a scoring drought lasting nearly five minutes, during which Lamar scored seven points to take a 68-61 lead. A pair of free throws by Jackson did little to stem the tide, which shifted heavily against the Ladyjacks during a sequence where three fouls were called against them without a second coming off the game clock.

Five players ended in double figures for Lamar, led by 17 points from guard De-Angela Mathis. The Cardinals built advantages in points in the paint (40-24), points off turnovers (23-17), second chance points (12-0) and bench scoring (21-7). A total of seven ties and eight lead changes took place during the game.

-SFA-