McNeese Women's Basketball clinches tournament spot with 76-69 win over Lamar

Staff Reports

The Contraband

The McNeese women’s basketball team clinched a Southland Conference Tournament berth Wednesday night with a 76-69 win over Lamar. The win is McNeese’s second win over the Cardinals in the last four days.

“We played good defense from key players tonight,” said head coach Brooks Donald Williams. “I thought we played really clean and fundamental in the clutch and down the stretch.”

Allison Baggett scored 15 second half points to lead all players with a game high 24. Frederica Haywood recorded her third double double of the season with 12 points and a game high 15 rebounds. Jayln Johnson chipped in 10 points and dished out four assists, bringing her career total to 529, two shy of the career record of 530 held by former Cowgirl standout Caitlyn Baggett.

“Allison played a complete game today. She was really focused and looked like she had that gleam in her eye to get the win,” Williams said. “I’m proud of the girls for playing relaxed especially late in the season. “We are getting production from not just Al and Jay but a lot of other players and especially our bench.”

McNeese (18-10, 10-6 SLC) outscored Lamar (10-17, 6-10) in three of the four quarters. McNeese trailed by 10 at the half (40-30) but outscored Lamar 46-29 in the second half.

The Cowgirls took a 53-51 lead on a Haywood layup with 50 seconds left in the third quarter. McNeese never trailed again and held its largest lead of the game of nine points (72-63) with 1:39 to play.

Baggett started the quarter off by hitting back-to-back three’s for a 68-61 lead early in the fourth quarter. A jumper by Haywood gave McNeese a nine-point lead then after a Lamar layup, Jasmyn Carswell gave the Cowgirls another nine-point lead with 1:39 to play. McNeese scored its final four points of the game from the free throw line, all coming from Baggett.

McNeese opened the game by scoring the first eight points off three-pointers by Johnson and Victoria Rachal and a jumper by Baggett. The Cowgirls were 4 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 from three-point range in the first five minutes of the game and held an 11-7 edge at the first media timeout.

Lamar went on a 7-0 run late in the quarter and the Cowgirls went cold, missing eight consecutive shots as Lamar took its first lead of the game (14-12). McNeese’s Keara Hudnall banked a three-pointer of the glass from deep in the corner as the Cowgirls regained the lead 15-14 and held a 17-16 first quarter lead.

The Cardinals outscored McNeese 24-13 in the second quarter and took its first double-digit lead on back-to-back three’s by Deja Roberts.

Lamar was led in scoring by Kiara Desamours’ 16 points. Addesha Collins scored 14, Laka Blache had 12 and Chastadie Barrs pitched in 10.

McNeese will host Nicholls at 1 p.m. Saturday in its home finale. Seniors Allison Baggett and Jayln Johnson will be honored prior to the game.