Box Score

Louisiana College junior Skylar Chenevert had the perfect reaction to her team's 79-66 come-from-behind win over Hardin-Simmons Thursday night.
 
"It felt so good," Chenevert said. "We really needed that."
 
The Lady Wildcats have had their struggles in recent weeks – having lost four of their last five coming into the game with HSU, and it appeared, in the first half, at least, that those struggles would continue.
 
Keyed by sizzling 63-percent shooting, the Cowgirls raced out to a 17-8 lead and upped that margin to 17 points on a layup by Shelby Hanna with 4:15 left in the first half to make the score 36-19. The Wildcats, who shot just 26-percent in the first half and an ice cold 1-for-11 from 3-point range, found themselves down 40-24 and getting out-hustled in virtually every category. They knew something had to change.
 
"Coach (Jason Tinsley) always coaches effort," Chenevert said. "If you play defense well enough, the offense will come."
 
And, in the second half, it certainly did. Still down 48-32, the Wildcats used a 10-2 run capped by Chenevert's 3-point play with 13:41 left in the game to cut HSU's lead to 8, 50-42.
 
The Cowgirls responded by pushing the lead back to 11 on a layup by Taylor Klement at 12:07, but LC then went on another 10-0 run to pull to within 1, 55-54, on a layup by freshman Natosha Morvant with 9:12 left.
 
On their next possession, the Wildcats took their first lead in the game, 56-55, on a layup from junior Danisha Allison and followed with a 3-pointer from Karylon Thornton to go up by 4. The Wildcats would not trail again. By the time their 23-3 run had ended, the Wildcats led 67-58 with under 5 minutes left in the contest. HSU would get no closer than 6.
 
Keying the second half dominance for the Wildcats was a dramatically improved shooting effort as they went 17-for-35 (49-percent) including 6-of-14 3-pointers. Along with that, the Wildcats forced 19 second half turnovers which they converted into 22 points. Overall, LC had 22 steals in the game.
 
Chenevert finished as LC's leading scorer with 17 points. Morvant finished with 15 and junior Neka Jones returned to the Wildcats' lineup to score 11. Junior Kaci Willis had a more than impressive floor game with 8 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals, while junior point guard Keana Frank added 8 points, 3 assists and a team-high 5 steals.
 
The Wildcats, now 10-6 in the American Southwest Conference and 12-7 overall return to action Saturday when they host the second place team in the ASC, Texas-Dallas, at 1 p.m. at H. O. West Fieldhouse. LC is currently in fifth place in the conference standings and will need to win this key home game if they hope to make a run in the ASC. But, Chenevert insisted the Cats were not looking past this game with HSU – chalking up the slow start to their recent struggles.
 
"It's like forgetting how to win," she said. "I kinda forgot how it felt to win a good game. Coach (Tinsley) said we need to learn how to bottle this energy and carry it over."