BEAUMONT, Texas — Despite redshirt junior Micaela Wilson posting a career-high 22 points, the Lamar University women's basketball program fell in overtime to Sam Houston, 83-80, on Wednesday night at the Montagne Center.
"We coach until we hear the final whistle or buzzer and that is what we did," said head coach Aqua Franklin. "I am proud of their fight today. We got to tip our hat to Sabria because that was a huge shot, and smart with awareness. Her basketball IQ is very high, and she is a 4.0 student in the classroom and to know to shoot the three at that time. I believe Micaela (Wilson) that rebound and looked ahead to get it past Sam's defense. We fought back in the fourth. I think it was 4:03 in the fourth when the timeout happened and we were down 10 and I told them 'We got one timeout left and I am not going to call it because we are going to save it for the end and we just got to battle.' I am proud of their effort tonight, but we got to tip our hats to Sam Houston. They fought and made plays."
The Cardinals fell down early to the Bearkats has Sam Houston came out of the gate on a 7-0 run to open the quarter before a jumper by redshirt junior Micaela Wilson broke the Cardinal scoring drought. From then on out, Lamar turned on the defensive burners and went on to make a huge cut into the Sam Houston lead. Lead by Wilson and junior Umaja Collins in the first, the Cardinals went into the second period down just four points, 16-12, to the Bearkats.
Lamar went into a zone defense to help stop the Sam Houston offense and it helped has the Cardinals won the second period by a score of 22-20. Helping the Cards in second was sophomore Kayla Mitchell, who came up with some huge three-pointers. In the second alone, Lamar shot 66 percent compared to 40 percent for the Bearkats from beyond the arc. Overall, Sam Houston took the lead into halftime, 36-34, behind 50 percent shooting from the field compared to 40 percent for the Cardinals.
The third period began nearly similar to the first as Sam Houston came out of the break on a 7-0 run, but huge baskets by sophomore Malay McQueen cut the Bearkat lead to three with 7:50 left to go. The period went on to go back and forth before the Bearkats were able to take a seven-point lead going into the final period.
The Cardinals went down 12 early in the fourth but were able to turn the period around beginning with a second chance jumper by Wilson that went on to start a huge Cardinal cut into the Sam Houston lead. Trading baskets up until the 4:03 mark when freshman Sabria Dean sank two free-throws to cut the Bearkat lead to 65-60. Fighting back and cutting the lead down to the wire, Dean came up clutch with a huge three-pointer at the final buzzer that sent the contest into overtime with the score at 71 apiece.
Lamar used a 6-0 run over the first half of the overtime period to stretch their lead to 77-71. Crucial fouls in the final seconds of the overtime period sent the Bearkats to the free throw line and give Sam Houston the nail-biting win over the Cardinals, 83-80.
UP NEXT: The Cardinals will be back at home on Saturday, January 16th when they play host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CT and will be broadcasted on ESPN+.
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