Box Score
PINEVILLE, La. - Christy Pantallion scored 21 points and the Louisiana College Wildcats' defense dominated McMurry University in the American Southwest Conference opener for both teams taking a 70-40 victory Saturday afternoon at H.O. West Field House.
The Wildcats had never defeated McMurry University since the teams first met in the 2000-01 season, however, the tenth time was a charm and the Wildcats handed McMurry its worst defeat since Jan. 4, 1997 when McMurry fell to Lubbock Christian 92-57.
McMurry's
Hailey Stacy hit a bucket with 13:30 left in the first half to knot the score at 13 apiece. However, from there, the Wildcats took the lead on a jump shot from Pantallion and LC never looked back. The Wildcats closed the half with a 23-7 run and went into the locker room with a 36-20 lead at intermission.
McMurry showed a little bit of life to start the second half as
Rikeita Thomas hit two-straight buckets to cut the Wildcat lead to 15 points at 40-25. Thomas' second basket came with 18:00 minutes left in the game; then in a strange turn of events, neither team scored over the next 5:02. Pantallion broke the scoring drought with a jumper at the 12:58 mark, then LC's Joanna Tate followed with a 3-pointer after a Pantallion steal and assist to increase the lead to 20 points.
From there, McMurry would never get close than 17 points within the lead.
LaPorsha Alexander scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds in the losing effort. The Wildcats held McMurry to a 23.3 percent shooting effort and McMurry finished 14 of 60 from the floor.
Pantallion was 8 of 11 fromt he floor and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line. Tillisha Givens scored 15 points for the Wildcats as well with nine of those coming from the charity stripe. Roslyn Wilmer also scored in double figures for LC with 11 points off the bench.
The 30-point deficit was the largest defeat in McMurry's history with the American Southwest Conference, which began in the 1996-97 season.
The Wildcats improved to 2-0 on the season and 1-0 in league play. Since the arrival of former all-American Janice Joseph-Richard as the head coach at LC in 2007-08, the Wildcats immediately emerged from the bottom of the barrel in the ASC East Division to a team competing for a division title. Joseph-Richard has led the Wildcats to a 33-21 record in two-plus seasons as head coach through Saturday's game.
