Stephen F. Austin
Texas State
Balanced Effort Vaults SFA To Fourth Straight Win
2/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 2, 2011
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Six Ladyjacks finished in double figures as Stephen F. Austin never trailed in picking up its fourth win in a row, 80-65, over Texas State on Wednesday at Strahan Coliseum.
SFA (8-12, 5-2 SLC) led by 19 points at the half and never let the lead get to single digits in the second frame, shooting 40 percent for the game and turning 19 Bobcat (7-13, 2-5 SLC) turnovers into 20 points in stopping Texas State's modest two-game win streak.
"I thought we played a very good first half, and it makes things much easier when you are able to build a big lead the way we did," head coach Brandon Schneider said. "But we have to do a better job of playing with the lead. Fortunately we were able to withstand their run in the second half and pick up another win."
Courtney Conwright hit three of SFA's eight triples in scoring a team-high 15 points, and was joined in double figures by a quintet of Ladyjacks including Chantol Drennan with 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds off the bench.
Senior Jordan Ford continued to play well, scoring 11 of her 13 points in the first half while Tammara Marion finished with 11 points and had a career-high nine assists. Ebony Alexander and Decreasha Goodner also finished with 10 points apiece in helping the SFA bench outscore the Bobcat bench 39-19.
Conwright opened the game with a three and it took less than seven minutes for the Ladyjacks to build a double-digit lead after an 11-0 run that they would maintain for nearly the entire game. Marion pushed the lead to 15 at 26-11 with four straight points on a runner and a pair of free throws, but the Bobcats were able to trim the lead back to just nine points at 32-23 on a layup from Verinus Kalu who, along with Diamond Ford, led the Bobcats with 17 points for the game.
But from there the Ladyjacks quickly weathered the storm with buckets from Ford and triples from Marion and Alexander to outscore Texas State by 10 points in the final 5:15 of the half and lead 47-28 at the break after shooting 46 percent in the opening period.
Texas State outshot and outscored the Ladyjacks in the second half, but despite a constant full-court attack by the Bobcats, SFA was able to withstand each push the `Cats mounted and never led by any less than 11 at any point of the second period as Drennan provided the primary offensive spark with 10 points.
It took an 8-0 run that included a four-point play from Kelsey Krupa for the `Cats to get back to an 11-point margin before SFA went back to work at re-padding the cushion behind seven points from Drennan in less than 2:30 to push the lead back to a comfortable margin at 65-48.
The Bobcats couldn't manage to string together another significant run in the second half as Conwright hit a pair of threes in the final two minutes of regulation to put things away.
SFA will wrap up its three-game road trip on Saturday when it travels to league-leading McNeese State for a 1:00 p.m. from the Lake Charles Civic Center.
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