BEAUMONT, Texas — Junior Jadyn Pimentel finished the night with 10 points and nine steals, but it was not enough as the Cardinals drop their 2020 opener to New Orleans on Thursday, 62-57.
Defense played a vital role for both teams during the first half with just a total 47 total points combined. New Orleans broke out full-court pressure from the beginning to bring down the hot hands of the Cardinals as they limited Lamar to just 17 percent shooting in the first quarter.
The Privateers held onto a one-point lead heading into the second quarter. In a nearly similar outcome as the first, the second quarter saw the stout Lamar defense come to the court as they limited New Orleans to 18 percent from the field as they took the lead into halftime over the Cardinals, 25-22.
Lamar fought back in the third as they went on to out score the Privateers in the third quarter, 17-13, behind redshirt senior Amber Vidal. Vidal hit some huge threes at the end of the quarter to push the Cardinal lead.
Averaging 4.1 steals per game, Pimentel moves into the Top 5 in the nation in steals per game. She also leads the conference with a total of 46 steals.
Senior Briana Laidler finished with another impressive performance. She finished the night with 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting while pulling down eight rebounds along the way.
From Coach Aqua Franklin:
On the team's performance and the game overall:
"Give it up for New Orleans. They deserve to win that game. They came out and played their hearts out to the buzzer. They had some young ladies step up. We held (Rehema) Franklin ot just two points off the free throw line, who was their leading scorer and coming off a 33-pont game. Asia Woods stepped up and she had a night. We have a quick turn-around, and we are starting to get ready for Abilene Christian right now."
On what gave them real problems with Asia Woods:
"I think a couple of times we were in foul trouble late, and Briana was on her, defending her, trying not to foul out. Woods did a great job of attacking her. Once she caught the ball and had a dribble, she back off her and shoot over her. We did not deny her the ball. We did not play our game today."
Steal Machine: Junior Jadyn Pimentel set a new career-high of nine steals in the loss to New Orleans. Her previous high came in her freshman year with eight steals against Howard Payne.
Up Next: The Cardinals will go on a two-game road stand, starting when they head to Abilene Christian on Jan. 4 for their first of two meetings this season. The game is scheduled to tipoff to 1:00 p.m. (CT).
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