Wednesday night, the Sam Houston women’s basketball team defeated the Houston Baptist University Huskies 88-57.
This game was led by a familiar face in junior forward Amber Leggett, as she accounted for her fifth straight 20-point game as well as grabbing 11 rebounds and adding five assists. Senior forward Courtney Cleveland followed with 18 points and six rebounds, and freshman guard Diamond Hunter recorded a career-high 17 points in the contest. The Bearkats moved to 8-5 overall and 4-3 in Southland Conference play.
The game stayed rather close in the first half, with the Huskies leading 14-11 with five minutes to go in the first quarter. Hunter then hit a three to tie it up and the Bearkats never trailed from there on out in the game. The second quarter was much of the same as the Bearkats maintained a single-digit lead for the whole quarter. Hunter poured in 10 for the quarter.
The second half was a completely different story. The Bearkats pulled out to a 19-1 run as the wealth was spread around throughout the third quarter. Freshman forward Deondra Young, junior forward Madelyn Batista, senior guard Faith Cook, Hunter, Leggett and Cleveland all pitched in to score and grow the lead. The fourth quarter was much of the same, as it was the Bearkats highest scoring quarter. They put up 29 as they kept rolling.
The Bearkats won the turnover battle 29-18 and scored 34 points off of turnovers, compared to the Huskies 13. Their pressure and defense wore on Houston Baptist for much of the night, which then led to easy transition buckets. They also held the Huskies to 34.0% from the field while shooting 46.3% themselves.
Sam Houston plays next on Saturday, Feb. 6 as they host Nicholls State University in Huntsville at 2 p.m. as they try to grab their 5th conference win.