SAN ANTONIO – HBU women's basketball has punched its ticket to the Southland Conference Tournament following an 81-71 victory at Incarnate Word Saturday afternoon from the McDermott Center.
HBU (12-17 overall, 6-12 SLC) got a career-high 27 points from senior forward
Erin McGarrachan. McGarrachan shot 11-of-14 from the floor, 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, and made all three free-throw attempts. She also pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season.
Anna Strickland scored 16 points and had nine rebounds as she tied her career high of 40 minutes played.
Rachel Arthur (13) and
Tayler Jefferson (11) finished the double-digit scoring for the Huskies, who shot 55 percent from the floor in the game.
Shanise Brooks scored a team-high 22 points to lead UIW (5-24, 2-16), as she shot 7-of-12 from the floor and made all eight shots from the charity stripe. Aricka Adams posted 14 points and a team-best five rebounds. The Cardinals shot 43 percent from the floor in the contest.
UIW started on fire, scoring 10 of the first 12 points before the Huskies' offense got going, outscoring UIW 11-4 to cut the deficit to one, 14-13, with 14:20 remaining in the first half.
HBU trailed by seven with 10 minutes to go before closing the half on a 23-10 run to lead the Cardinals at the break, 43-37.
McGarrachan led all scorers with 22 first-half points, as she went 9-of-10 from the floor and 2-for-2 from both beyond the arc and from the line. HBU shot 54 percent in the half. UIW was led by Brooks with 10 points as the Cardinals shot 46 percent from the floor.
The Huskies opened the second half on a 13-4 run to stretch their lead to 15, 56-41, culminated by an old-fashioned three-point play by Arthur.
UIW got as close as four, 62-58, following an Adams' jumper at the 9:25-mark, but a three-pointer by Jefferson pushed the Huskies' lead to nine and they never looked back.
Strickland and Arthur paced the Huskies with nine-points each in the second half, while Jefferson had eight. HBU shot 57 percent in the half. Brooks led UIW with 12 points in the half, as the Cardinals shot 39 percent.
Despite UNO's win over Northwestern State tonight, the Huskies own the tiebreaker. The eighth-seeded Huskies will play fifth-seed McNeese State Thursday, March 12 at 11 am from the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.
