Todd Ryals

Strong Second Half Leads Lady Wildcats Past ETBU

2/6/2017 11:11:00 PM

By: LC Sports Information

Box Score

After a first half that saw the Louisiana College Wildcats and East Texas Baptist Tigers women shoot a combined 28.6% from the field, the Wildcats used a strong second half, led by guard Kourtney McGhee, to pick up the 71-62 win over the visiting rival Tigers Monday night. LC will hold on to the number four spot in the American Southwest Conference East Division standings with the win, 1.0 games ahead of Ozarks for the final spot.

A poor shooting effort from both teams led to a low scoring first quarter and first half. The Tigers shot 10-of-33 from the field in the first half with the Wildcats going 8-for-30 on their end. LC took the early lead after buckets from Kourtney McGhee and Zharian Maxmillion, but the Tigers would take the lead mid way through the quarter from the free throw line and hold it the rest of the period. A layup and an old fashioned 3-point play in the final minute gave ETBU the 17-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The offenses continued to struggle in the second quarter, with both team combining to score just 17 points, eight for the Tigers and nine for the Wildcats. The final bucket of the second quarter came at the 2:11 mark, a jumper from ETBU's Amanda Wilson, giving the Tigers the 25-19 lead at the halftime break. Neither team would score the rest of the quarter and combine to go 0-for-4 from the field and turn the ball over to their opponents four times.

The Wildcats came out of the halftime break a totally different offensive unit, as they rattled off 13 straight points to start the third quarter, erasing the six point deficit and giving themselves a seven point lead through the first four minutes of the second half. As bad as the offenses played in the first half, both started picking up steam in the third quarter, especially the Wildcats and Kourtney McGhee. LC as many points in the third quarter as ETBU did the entire first half, 25, and took a 44-39 lead into the fourth quarter.

ETBU made things interesting late in the fourth quarter thanks to a bit of sloppy play from the Wildcats, but solid free throw shooting in the final minute kept the game from becoming too close for comfort for LC. The Wildcats made 47.4% of their shots in the second half and went 12-for-19 from the free throw line and 5-for-6 in the final 30 seconds of the game.

Kourtney McGhee had one of the best all around games of the season, recording her first double-double of the season with 16 points and 14 rebounds, falling just three assists shy of a triple-double with seven. Taylor Payne and Zharian Maxmillion also finished in double digits for LC with 12 and 11 points respectively.

The Wildcats will host the ASC East leading UT Dallas Comets on Thursday night, their second to last home game of the season, with a chance to lock up a tournament spot out of the East. With only a 1.0 game lead on Ozarks for the final spot, LC will keep a close eye on the Eagles game against ETBU on Thursday night, with Ozarks making the trip to Pineville on Saturday. Tip off Thursday is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at H.O. West Fieldhouse. Stay connected with LC women's basketball by following @LC_WBB on Twitter or liking LC Athletics on Facebook.

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