JONATHAN FORNEY
@jb4nay

The Islander women’s basketball team fell to the Lamar University Cardinals 74-63 in their Homecoming game.

The team started the game with a 7-0 run and led for first three quarters of action. Ultimately, the Cardinals outscored the Islanders 25-8 in the final period to come away with the victory.

“We didn’t play the way we needed to for 40 minutes, but we did a pretty good job for 30.” Head coach, Royce Chadwick said. “I thought those 30 minutes were the best we’ve played this year.”

Redshirt junior guard, Brittany Mbamalu, led the offensive charge for the Islanders. Mbamalu put in three three-pointers in the opening period and finished with a game-high 17 points. Her four total three-pointers in the first half were the only makes for the team from beyond the arc. Coming off a knee injury that caused her to miss action early in the season, Mbamalu came out firing.

“Brittany told us going into the game ‘I’m back, I’m ready. Let’s go play’,” Chadwick said. “We’ve never wavered getting Brittany shots. She did a really good job getting us going there in the first half.”

One of the team’s usual steadying offensive forces, senior guard, Kassie Jones, struggled. Jones went 3-12 from the field and finished with nine points and five turnovers.

A bright spot going forward came through freshman guard, Dalesia Booth, who finished with 16 points. Booth made all four of her shots in the second half and even had seven straight points in the third quarter.

“I think she’s [Booth] turned a corner. The run she’s been on is one of the best runs I’ve ever seen a freshman do in my career.” Chadwick said.

The team executed their offense well out of the gate. Nine assists on twelve made field goals in the first half, but only tallied seven in the second half.

“In the second half, we didn’t get the assists,” Chadwick said. “It was all more one on one.”

Coach Chadwick sensed his players were trying too hard to be the one to make plays rather than functioning within the schemes of the offense.

“I thought we were pressing a little bit down the stretch. Instead of going out with the mentality of ‘I’ve got to do my job’, they went out and said ‘I’ve got to make a play’.” Chadwick said. “I don’t think we went out there to do our jobs to get the shots for our players.”

Conversely, as the assist tallies shrunk, the turnovers rose; a dangerous combination. The Islanders had just nine in the first half, but eleven in the second. The Cardinals were able to turn these miscues into 30 points that helped propel their second half push.

The Cardinals got to the line 22 times in second half. The foul calls were a result of their dribble-drive, attacking offense which caused the Islander defense problems throughout the game. This aggressive strategy led to 38 Cardinal points in the paint and carried them to the victory.

With just four games remaining until the conference tournament, the Islanders find themselves fighting for a spot.

“We’ve got to go to Abilene. Then we get to settle in and play some home games that are going to determine if we go to Katy or not. It’s virtually in our hands. We’ve got to go make the plays.” Chadwick said.