Box Score BEAUMONT, Texas—McNeese women's basketball team missed several opportunities to extend their winning streak Saturday against second place Lamar but fell short in a 75-67 Southland Conference game.
McNeese (15-11, 9-6 SLC) had three players foul out of the game including starters
Allison Baggett and
Frederica Haywood.
Mercedes Rogers also fouled out having played only 11 minutes.
Baggett led all players in scoring with a game high 24.
Amber Donnes ended the game with 16 with 14 coming in the second half. Donnes was 4 of 8 behind the arc.
Talisa Boyd led the Cowgirls with 12 rebounds.
McNeese held its last lead of the game (20-19) with 6:36 left in the first half on a Donnes Layup. Lamar took the lead for good on a Dominique Edwards put back and never gave up the lead. After a Baggett three tied the game at 23 with 4:28 left, Lamar went on a 12-5 run the rest of the way to hold a 35-29 halftime lead.
Haywood scored on a layup to open the second half to cut the lead to four but Lamar's JaMeisha Edwards was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three free throws to up the lead back to seven (38-31). Donnes responded with her first trey of the game. After a Lamar layup, McNeese scored the next five points on a Boyd layup and a Baggett three to cut the lead to 40-39.
Lamar would hold as much as a nine point lead (51-42) with 13:16 to play but the Cowgirls put together a 9-2 run to get within two points at the 11:20 mark and then again at the 10:05 mark. Lamar responded with a 8-2 run to bring their lead back to eight points. McNeese would cut the lead to four points with 1:44 to play but couldn't get the stops down the stretch to pull out the victory.
Trailing 73-67 with 1:07 to play, McNeese had three chances to score on one possession but could get the ball to drop. With a Lamar 10 second violation call with :34.5, McNeese had a chance to cut the lead in half but Baggett missed a three and then committed her fifth foul. Lamar's Caroline Adesulu made both free throws to ice the game.
McNeese opened the game by scoring the first four points and held its largest lead of the game 8-2, four minutes into the game.
Both teams will turn around and play each other again Thursday in Lake Charles that will be the first of the final three regular season games, all of which are home games. Game time is 7 p.m.
