McNeese Women's Basketball advances to semis with 88-78 win over Lamar

Staff Reports

The Contraband

McNeese women’s basketball team beat the odds and Lamar for the third time this season with an 88-78 win Friday in the second round of the Southland Conference Tournament to advance to the semifinals against top seed Central Arkansas Saturday. Tipoff is at 1 p.m. The win is also the fourth 20-win season for McNeese under head coach Brooks Donald Williams.

“We struggled with their pressure, which we had the first two times we played them. It’s tough to play a team three times, especially a team like Lamar, which causes such chaos. Hats off to them and hats off to our team for coming back and changing some things defensively to guard them better and flipping the switch in the second half,” said head coach Brooks Donald Williams.

Seniors Jayln Johnson and Allison Baggett combined for 53 of the Cowgirls’ 88 points. Baggett ended the game with 30, one shy of tying her career high. Johnson ended the game with 23 along with a game high eight assists and six steals.

Sophomore Frederica Haywood led all players with 23 rebounds, the most for a Cowgirl in postseason play and two shy of tying the McNeese single game record of 25 held by Hall of Famer Pat Jean. Haywood grabbed 10 offensive boards and 13 on the defensive end. As a team, McNeese outrebounded Lamar 51-36 for the game.

“It was the factor. I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Donald-Williams said. “Our posts did a fantastic job of rebounding the basketball on both ends and gave us a lot of second opportunities. They kept us in the game when we weren’t guarding them as well,” Williams said.

The game was similar to the previous two in that the Cowgirls trailed by as many as 19 points midway through the second quarter. The Cowgirls were down by 18 in the third quarter in Lake Charles in the first meeting and by 15 at the half in the second meeting in Beaumont. What was the difference in the previous two games was the Cowgirls’ defense and that was the case again Friday.

Lamar (12-19) went on a 13-0 run in the second quarter to take their largest lead of 19 points with 4:35 left in the second quarter. McNeese (20-11) responded with a run of their own. Baggett’s jumper started a McNeese 16-0 run to cut the Lamar lead to 42-39. Baggett and Johnson hit back-to-back three’s and a jumper by Jasmyn Carswell cut the lead to single digits. McNeese kept plugging away and would get within three points on treys by Johnson. Lamar would take a 44-40 halftime lead into the locker room.

McNeese came out in the second half and dominated Lamar on both ends of the floor and used its defense to turn into offense. The Cowgirls outscored the Cardinals 48-34 in the second half including 31 points in the third quarter, their second most points scored in a quarter this season. McNeese held its largest lead of 19 points with 6:20 to play.