Cowgirls fall at league-leading Texas A&M-CC

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — McNeese women’s basketball stayed within reach in the first half against league leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi here Saturday but the Islanders were too much for the Cowgirls in the second half in a 78-61 Southland Conference loss, snapping the Cowgirls’ four game winning streak.

McNeese (8-12, 5-4 SLC) scored the opening basket of the game for the quick lead but the Islanders went on a run to take a 10-4 lead. McNeese countered with a run of its own and an Autumn Watts three-pointer tied the game at 10 apiece with three minutes left in the first quarter. AMCC ended the quarter on a 10-2 run to lead 20-12 and 36-26 at the half.

The Cowgirls opened the third quarter by scoring the first six points to get within four points (36-32) but back-to-back three’s by the Islanders pushed the lead back up to 10 points and the Islanders never looked back.

McNeese allowed the Islanders (13-7, 8-1 SLC) to score 38 points in the paint and 27 points off 20 Cowgirl turnovers.

Divine Tanks led McNeese in scoring with 12 points and Stephanie Guihon came off the bench to score 11.

Coming off their best field goal percent of the season at UIW on Thursday, the Cowgirls struggled from the field Saturday, ending the game with a 37.5 field goal percent on 21 of 56 attempts.

Texas A&M-CC was led Alecia Westbrook, who recorded her 10th double double of the season (18 pts., 10 reb.) and scored her 1,000th career point in the second quarter.

Makinna Serrata led all players with 21 points and Paige Allen added 11 points.

McNeese will return home Thursday, Feb. 2 to host Lamar at 5 p.m.

Quarter Notes
1st- Watts tied the game at 10 apiece late in the third on a three-pointer. AMCC scored the next 10 points to take a 20-10 lead. Desirae Hansen ended the Cowgirl scoring drought with a turn-around jumper with a few seconds left in the quarter and the Cowgirls trailed 20-12 at the end of the quarter.

2nd- AMCC took a 14 point lead twice. AMCC held a 36-22 lead with 2:03 but McNeese ended the quarter on an 8-0 to cut the lead back to 10 points at the half.

3rd- McNeese opened the second half by scoring the first six points of the half on back-to-back buckets by Divine Tanks and a jumper by Alicja Falkowska to cut the AMCC lead to four 36-32. AMCC extended the lead back to 10 (42-32) with back-to-back three’s. The Islanders held its largest lead of the game 58-41 late in the quarter.

4th- AMCC outscored McNeese by only two points but the lead was just too large for a Cowgirl comeback as the Islanders held their largest lead of 20 with 59 seconds left in the contest.