BEAUMONT, Texas – HCU women's basketball dropped their first of two consecutive meetings against the Lamar Cardinals in the Montagne Center Thursday afternoon.
 
HCU (11-14, 6-8 SLC) jumped out to a quick 7-4 lead after N'Denasija Collins and Julija Vujakovic made tough driving layups on two of the Huskies opening possessions. Kennedy Wilson then hit a catch and shoot three-pointer at the top of the key on a nice pass from Marilyn Nzoiwu out of the paint.
 
HCU extended their lead to five and the five minute mark when Vujakovic jumped in the passing lane on a Lamar (15-10, 9-5 SLC) inbounds attempt and went coast-to-coast for the right handed layup. The Huskies extended their lead to 10 points with 3:30 to play in the quarter. Lamar cut back into the Husky lead by scoring 10 points over the final three minutes of the period.  
 
HCU finished one of their best defensive quarters of the season with a seven point lead, in part due to their defense allowing the Cardinals to shoot just 29 percent from the floor.
 
Lamar opened the second quarter on a 7-2 run and forced three Husky turnovers to cut the HCU lead down to just two. The Cardinals extended their run with six consecutive points out of the second quarter media timeout and took their first lead of the game, 27-25. Abbey Sutherland quickly regained the lead for the Huskies on their next possession, knocking down a clutch three pointer as the shot clock was running out.
 
Portia Adams was too much for the Huskies defense to contain over the final three and a half minutes of the second quarter. Adams scored nine of the final 11 points for the Cardinals in the period and the Cardinals held the Huskies to just four points over the same span.
 
Adams had an incredible first half for the Cardinals, finishing with 24 points, 15 in the second quarter, to help give the Cardinals a 38-32 advantage heading into halftime.
 
Lamar came out of halftime and knocked down two quick jump shots and pushed their lead to 10 points. Collins knocked down a pair of free throws before Sutherland and Wilson made driving layups on back-to-back possessions. After Sutherland knocked down a three pointer from the left wing, Vujakovic made a pullup jumper from the baseline to cut the HCU deficit to just two.
 
On the next HCU possession, Collins swiped an offensive rebound from a Cardinal defender and made a layup, the 1,000th point of her career, evening things at 47. Lamar outscored the Huskies 6-3 over the final few minutes of the third and took a 53-50 lead into the fourth.
 
Both teams started off cold from the floor over the first several minutes of the fourth quarter. The Cardinals made a pair of free throws and then a layup to push their lead back to seven, 57-50, with 7:30 left to play in the game. It was the Wilson and Collins show for the Huskies over the next four minutes. The duo combined for 11 consecutive points to get the Huskies back to within four, 65-61, with 3:26 left to play.
 
Lamar maintained pressure on both sides of the ball and held onto their lead the rest of the way and walked away with a 73-65 win.
 
Wilson led four Huskies in double-figures with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Collins scored 18 points this evening for the Huskies and in doing so, became just the 12th player in program history to surpass 1,000 career points. Vujakovic finished with 11 points, three rebounds three assists, three steals, and two blocks while Sutherland finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
 
Adams finished with a career high 32 points and R'Mani Taylor finished with 15 points for the Cardinals. The Huskies outshot the Cardinals from the floor 47 percent to 39 percent, but Lamar fared much better at the foul line, out shooting HCU 85 percent to 54 percent.
 
HCU and Lamar meet again on Saturday inside of Sharp Gym with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m. The game will be aired live on ESPN3.