PINEVILLE – The Wildcats of Louisiana Christian University pulled away from LSU–Alexandria late in their Rapides Parish rivalry game Saturday and claimed a 74-66 win over the visiting Generals.
Miya McKinney, last week's Player of the Week for the Red River Athletic Conference, scored a game-high 24 points and pulled in 15 rebounds to lead five Wildcats in double-figures Saturday. It was McKinney's seventh consecutive double-double and 14th in 19 games played this season.
An'Tiesha Griffin scored matched her LCU career high with 15 points, which included a 9-of-14 showing at the free throw line.
Paola Abad Prieto,
Claire Borot, and
Olivia Scott scored 10 points apiece, with Abad grabbing nine rebounds of her own.
Meanwhile, Borot blocked a career-high eight shots, which was also the most by an RRAC player this season. The senior from Martinique in the Caribbean ranks second in the conference with 1.4 blocked shots per game.
The Wildcats (11-9, 8-5 RRAC) won their third consecutive game and improved their home record at the H.O. West Fieldhouse to 7-1 this season.
LSU–Alexandria (8-13, 7-7 RRAC) got 18 points from former LCU player
Alex Harrison and 15 from Dannah Martin-Hartwick.
After Martin-Hartwick hit one of her seemingly-patented running floater jump shots – she made three such shots in the fourth quarter – and cut LCU's lead to 61-60 with less than four minutes to play, the 'Cats scored eight of the next nine points and built a 69-61 lead with 2:06 left in the game.
From there, the 'Cats were able to finish the game with relative ease as LSUA would get no closer than five points the rest of the way.
LCU shot 26-of-55 (47.3 percent) from the floor and made 31 percent (5 of 16) of their 3-pointers. The Generals shot 30 3-pointers in the game, making 11 of them for a 36.7 percentage Saturday.
LSUA made 50 percent (8 of 16) of their 3-pointers in the first half which sparked a 27-point second quarter, but could only make three of their 14 long-range shots (21.4 percent) in the second half.
The Wildcats return to action Thursday, Feb. 2 when the Rams from Huston-Tillotson make the trip from Austin, Texas, to the West Fieldhouse for an RRAC matchup. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
