McNeese Women’s Basketball falls to Incarnate Word

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Three weeks before Thursday night’s game at the Legacy Center between the McNeese Cowgirls and the Incarnate Word Cardinals, the two squared off in San Antonio, a game McNeese won 69-34, but three weeks later the script was flipped.

At the Legacy Center on Thursday, the two battled for a majority of the first half as the Cardinals held a slim 20-19 lead after the first quarter, and a 32-27 lead at the half, but the second half was where it all fell apart for the Cowgirls.

Incarnate Word began the second half on a 6-0 run and outscored the Cowgirls 21-11 in the quarter, blowing the game wide open, and taking a 53-38 lead into the fourth and final quarter, and by that point, the damage was already done, and the Cowgirls weren’t able to crawl back in the fourth as they were outscored 16-7 in the final 10 minutes as they would lose 69-45.

“Slow start, slow middle, slow finish. We didn’t shoot it very well tonight and we did not execute on offense, and then defensively we did not lock in on scout, I mean give them all the credit you know (Jorja) Elliott came out and shot the lights out can’t take anything away from her. We did not execute on defense we did not have our rotations tonight. We were sluggish and they took it to us” said McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy following the loss.

The Cowgirls didn’t have any players in double figures on Thursday night while the Cardinals had two, including Jorja Elliott who lit up McNeese for 30 points on eight 3-pointers.

McNeese top-performers:

Paris Mullins: 9 points, 3 rebounds
Divine Tanks: 5 points, 9 rebounds

Incarnate Word top-performers:

Jorja Elliott: 30 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal
Nina De Leon Negron: 10 points, 8 assists, 5 steals, 3 rebounds

With the loss, the Cowgirls have now lost three consecutive games, and continue to slip in the Southland Conference Standings.

Southland Conference Standings:

Southeastern Lady Lions: 11-3 (16-8)
Texas A&M - Corpus Christi Islanders: 10-4 (15-10)
Texas A&M - Commerce Lions: 9-4 (11-14)
Lamar Cardinals: 9-5 (15-10)
McNeese Cowgirls: 6-8 (9-16)
Incarnate Word Cardinals: 6-8 (11-13)
Houston Christian Huskies: 6-8 (11-14)
Northwestern State Lady Demons: 6-8 (10-14)
New Orleans Privateers: 5-9 (6-17)
Nicholls Colonels: 1-12 (4-20)

The Cowgirls are back in action Saturday when they host Texas A&M - Corpus Christi at 1:00 in the Legacy Center. The Cowgirls lost to the Islanders 78-61 on January 28th.

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