New Orleans- For the second straight year, the University of New Orleans women's basketball team is headed to the Southland Conference Women's Basketball Tournament in Katy, Texas.
New Orleans (14-13, 10-6 SLC) clinched a trip to the Lone Star State with a 77-50 win over Sam Houston State (4-21, 1-15), Wednesday at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
"Last year we got there and we were so excited to go to Katy but it was never just a destination point," said head coach
Keeshawn Davenport. "We don't want to just get there we want to get some things done in Katy. And I'm so proud of this team for working so hard to get there."
The Privateers got 34 points from the Southland Conference's leading scorer,
Randi Brown and 15 from fellow senior
Kayla Mundy, both made the most of their last game at Lakefront Arena.
FIRST QUARTER
New Orleans scored the first six points of the contest and never looked back.
Randi Brown had 15 points in the first period on 6-of-9 from the field. The Privateers were 11-of-18 as a team and closed the period with a 15-point, 26-11 advantage.
SECOND QUARTER
The Bearkats opened the second quarter with a 10-0 run, cutting the lead to 26-21 just 3-minutes and 8-seconds into the second. However back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers, 2 by Mundy and 1 by Brown, stretched the lead to 14 at 35-21 Privateers. Although Sam Houston State outscored New Orleans in the quarter (18-15), the home team took a 41-29 lead into the break. Brown had 18 points in the first half,
Shania Woods had 8 of her 9 points on the night in the first 20 minutes.
THIRD QUARTER
UNO broke it open with a 16-4 run in the third quarter, ballooning a 10-point, 45-35 advantage, into a 21-point, 61-39 lead.
Randi Brown keyed the run with 9 points.
Kayla Mundy had a 4-point play and
Halie Matthews chipped in with a jumper. It was a 21-12 quarter for the Privateers and they went into the final stanza with a 62-41 lead.
FOURTH QUARTER
The final period was the lowest scoring stanza of the night, 15-9 in favor of New Orleans. The five seniors,
Kayla Mundy,
Halie Matthews,
Katarina Maricic,
Randi Brown and
Mariah Wright, exited the game as a group and the Privateer lead reached 30 as they cruised to the win at home, 77-50.
"I'm really going to miss these five seniors. They have impacted this program on and off the court. They came to the program when we were not winning, they believed in the vision and they have laid a great foundation to were the women coming behind them can continue what they have done," said Davenport.
BY THE NUMBERS
Randi Brown's 34-point performance moved her into fifth-place all time among Southland Conference scorers with 2,058 career points. Brown's single-game high this season was 38 points against CSUN in the Preseason WNIT.
The Privateers finished 10-4 at home for the second straight season.
New Orleans collected 20 steals on the night led by
Randi Brown with 5. They scored 20 points off 22 turnovers.
The Privateers shot 48.3% (28-of-58) on the evening. However, they were unusually cold from the free throw line. The conference leader in free throw shooting as a team was 9-of-20, 48.3%.
Halie Matthews and
Shania Woods blocked three shots each in the game.
UP NEXT
UNO closes the regular season with road games against Nicholls, Feb. 24 and Southeastern Louisiana, Feb. 28.
Be sure to follow
@UNOPrivateers on Twitter,
@UNOPrivateers on Instagram, like
/UNOPrivateers on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.
--www.UNOPrivateers.com--
