[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Local Sports
Archives
| Arts & Entertainment
| Audio/Video
| Business
| Classifieds
| Columns
| Food
| Forums
| Health & Fitness
| News
| Obits
| Opinions
| People
| Politics
| Science/Technology
| Search
| Sports
| Subscribe
| Travel
| Weather
Tuesday, January 30, 2001
Two-game win streak, reaching .500 mark increases confidence of A&M-CC women
By Matt Young
Caller-Times
HUNTSVILLE - Before this past weekend, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team was two games below the .500 mark and losers of five of its last seven.
Two games later, the Islanders have evened their record and won consecutive games by 36 and 27 points, respectively. Suddenly, confidence is at an all-time high.
A&M-Corpus Christi moved its record to an even 11-11 after its 88-61 win over Sam Houston State on Monday. That rout came on the heels of the Islanders' 96-60 win at Centenary.
Sam Houston and Centenary have a combined record of 4-33.
"We looked at this road trip and realized we had two games in front of us that we could win if we played well, so we were pretty excited to play these games," said Kendra Smith, who scored a career-best 16 points against Sam Houston. "We're feeling really good now, and our confidence is high. I think we have momentum now. We're definitely on a roll, and I think it's going to be hard to stop us the rest of the way."
STEPPING UP: ShaKayla Hawkins was considered one of the Islanders' top recruits last season, and the backup point guard showed flashes of why she was so highly regarded with her performance against Sam Houston.
Hawkins scored a career-best eight points and dished out a career-best seven assists. Going into Monday's game, Hawkins was averaging just 2.2 points and 1.5 assists per game.
"ShaKayla got a lot of playing time, and she looked great," A&M-Corpus Christi coach Sheryl Estes said. "Eight points and seven assists. That's a pretty good game for a freshman point guard."
STEPPING DOWN: Sam Houston center Brenda Abakwue had been a handful lately, but the Islanders found a way to slow her down.
In Sam Houston's last six games, Abakwue was averaging 21 points and 13 rebounds per game. Against A&M-Corpus Christi, Abakwue managed to pick up 14 points and 12 boards, but most of that came after the game was decided. Abakwue didn't score a point in the first half.
"When Jean Clark was on her, (Abakwue) didn't do much," Estes said. "Jean played excellent defense and our guards pressured the ball so that Sam Houston had trouble getting the ball down there to her."
THIN BENCH: Sam Houston was without six players because of injuries, which meant the Bearkats were limited to a seven-player rotation. Without much of a bench, Sam Houston's starters all played 34 minutes or more.
Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com
| Talk
about this story | Next Story | Home
|
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
© 2001,
a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.
|
 |
 |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
