PINEVILLE, La. – The Louisiana Christian University women's basketball team set out to prove its earlier loss to LSU Alexandria was not going to be repeated, jumping out to a 16-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back as the Wildcats throttled the Generals 91-67 Saturday afternoon at H.O. West Fieldhouse.
 
The Wildcats led almost from the opening tip as Kieyoomia Benally sank a three-pointer on the game's opening possession and LCU would never surrender that advantage. Benally sank another long ball a few possessions later to make it 6-0 before LSUA could respond with a three of its own to cut the Wildcat lead in half. But that would be the last time LSUA was within a possession of LCU as the Wildcats then embarked on a 16-3 run, started by a lay-up by Miya McKinney and capped off by a Paola Abad Prieto steal and bucket that put the Wildcats up 22-6 with 1:45 left in the period. Another Benally three with 20 seconds left gave LCU a 27-11 lead after one period of play.
 
After LSUA scored the first five points of the second quarter, a three-pointer by Abad Prieto kicked off a 16-4 LCU run that Blades capped with a three to put the Wildcats up 43-19 with 4:30 left before halftime. The lead hit its peak at 26 points following a layup by DaKayla Howard with three minutes left that put LCU up 51-25. That would be the Wildcats final points of the period however as LSUA scored the last four to make the score 51-29 at the break.
 
The third quarter saw the game fall into a bit of a rhythm where LSUA got the LCU lead down to 18 only to see the Wildcats respond with a couple buckets to get it back over 20 points. A DaKayla Howard three with less than a minute left gave LCU a 66-43 lead before a Generals three made it 66-46 heading to the last 10 minutes.
 
LSUA started to make some shots in the fourth quarter, helping the Generals cut the Wildcat lead down to as little as 15 points at 77-62 with 4:15 left in the game. However, whatever hope was there for a massive comeback was squelched by a 14-3 run that got the Wildcats back to their largest gap over the Generals of 26 points as Kieyoomia Benally drained a three with less than 20 seconds left for a 91-65 lead before two LSUA free throws ended the scoring.
 
Miya McKinney, on Senior Day, continued her run of good play, barely missing out on another double-double as she hit ten-of-11 shots from the field for a game-high 20 points to go with nine rebounds. Paola Abad Prieyo was nearly as effective, hitting seven-of-ten, including both of her three-point attempts, for 18 points. Kieyoomia Benally hit four three-pointers on her way to 17 points. DaKayla Howard had her best game of the season, going five-of-six, which included hitting her only shot from deep, for 13 points to round out the leading scorers.

LCU hit better than 50% of its shots in three of the four quarters, finishing the game shooting at 54.4% from the field and 42.9% from above the arc. On the other hand, LSUA was held to less than 36% shooting in three of the four quarters and finished at 37.3% from the field in the game.
 
With the home portion of the schedule now behind them, the Wildcats (12-7, 6-4 RRAC) now head on the road to close out the 2021-22 regular season with five straight road games. The first of those five games is Thursday, February 5^thlooking to complete the season sweep against Jarvis Christian, having previously beaten JCC 82-56 at H.O. West Fieldhouse. Tip-off of Thursday's game against the Bulldogs (3-11, 2-8 RRAC) is set for 5:30 P.M. at the Earl W. Rand Center in Hawkins, Texas.