Cowgirls defeat Southland leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

LAKE CHARLES — McNeese women’s basketball made a statement here Thursday night by taking down first place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 76-65 in a game that could have Southland Tournament seeding implications in a few weeks.

McNeese (12-13, 7-5 SLC) took the lead on a Divine Tanks layup less than two minutes into the game and never looked back on its way to its third consecutive win and the second straight games the Cowgirls have scored at least 75 points.

“We had a lot of confidence going into this week,” said head coach Lynn Kennedy. “I talked to the team the last two days about it- it’s been about us, it’s not about Corpus Christi or UIW, it’s been about us all season and were we ready to step up in the moment and show the conference that we can compete against the best and win. We’ve competed but we haven’t won. I thought tonight we were confident, I liked our game plan, our coaches did a great job of keeping them in front. It’s encouraging but at the same time we have room for improvement and we have work to do to get ready for the tournament.”

Kaili Chamberlin led all players with a game high 23 points, connecting on 6 of 14 field goals and was nearly perfect from the free throw line by sinking 9 of her 10 attempts. Tanks added a season high 18 points and Cristina Gil chipped in with 13 points.

McNeese put together an 11-4 run midway through the first quarter to take a 24-12 lead into the second period then held its largest lead of the game (16 points) following two Zuzanna Kulinska free throws with 1:38 left in the first half. The Cowgirls would lead 40-26 at the half.

The Cowgirls defense held the Islanders to no three-pointers in 13 attempts and an overall 33.8 field goal shooting percent while the Cowgirls shot 53.1 percent from the field including 35 percent from behind the arc.

“We have learned a lot in the last three weeks especially the Southeastern game, we didn’t finish it but tonight we did. I’m proud of our team for staying composed. We didn’t get rattled even with the change in momentum. Overall, I loved our defensive intensity but we have to do a better job of blocking out.”

The Islanders (17-8, 9-2 SLC) got as close as five points with 1:16 to play and then again with 53 seconds left in the game but McNeese made good on four of five free throws to end the game to seal the win.

Makinna Serrata led TAMU-CC with 16 points while Alecia Westbrook and Paige Allen ended the game with 13 points and Violeta Verano scored 12.

“A win against the no. 1 team in the league means a lot but it means more to me that we played better. We’ve been close a lot of games but we haven’t been able to finish them off and tonight we did.”

McNeese will close out its home schedule in a 1 p.m. game against Incarnate Word. Graduate senior Lana Skripkina will be honored prior to the game.