HOUSTON – On Monday afternoon inside Sharp Gym, the HCU women's basketball team kept visiting Schreiner off the board for more than seven minutes to start the game and never looked back en route to a 66-40 win to wrap up non-conference play.
The Huskies (5-6) jumped out to a 12-0 lead over the game's first seven minutes, holding Schreiner (3-8) scoreless until there was just 2:53 left on the clock in the first quarter. By the end of the quarter, HCU led 15-2 and forced eight Mountaineer turnovers in the first 10 minutes.
Consecutive buckets from freshman
Makolla Bagayegou pushed the HCU lead to 15, 20-5, before the Mountaineers went on a 7-1 burst to cut their deficit to just nine with 4:22 left in the half. The Huskies scored the next six, however, and took a 32-15 lead into the half.
Schreiner didn't go away quietly, scoring the first eight points of the second half to again pull within nine, 32-23, with 7:45 on the clock. Senior
N'Denasija Collins broke the scoreless stretch for HCU, however, with a quick four points and the Huskies pulled away as the third quarter wore on, leading 52-30 at the end of the period. HCU then continued to grow its lead over the final 10, taking its largest lead of the game, the 66-40 final, with just 48 seconds remaining.
Collins led all players with 21 points, connecting on 10-of-15 from the floor, while also pulling down seven rebounds.
Amy Cotton filled up the stat sheet, matching her career-high of 12 points while also grabbing eight rebounds and setting new career-highs with six blocked shots and four assists. Junior
Enya Maguire went 4-of-9 from the floor, 3-of-7 from three, for 11 points and Bagayegou ended the day with nine points.
The Huskies shot 45.6 percent (26-of-57) from the floor, 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from three-point range and 66.7 percent (8-of-12) from the foul line. Schreiner, meanwhile, finished the game shooting 27.8 percent (15-of-54) overall and just 20 percent (3-of-15) from long-range. HCU forced the Mountaineers into 21 turnovers and won the battle of the boards, 40-34.
HCU will be off for more than two weeks before Southland Conference play begins on Wednesday, Jan. 3, in Corpus Christi, Texas against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders.
