Courtesy: Kirk Meche Kiara Johnson scores a career high 20 points
LAKE CHARLES-- McNeese State's Kiara Johnson scored a career high 20 points and missed her first double-double of the season by one rebound in the Cowgirls 72-58 loss to Samford here Saturday. Johnson was 6 of 11 from the field and 8 of 10 from the charity stripe. Johnson grabbed nine rebounds but fouled out with nine minutes left in the contest.
"I'm proud of our girls and their effort today. We had a total team effort and we played tough," said head coach Brooks Donald Williams.
The Cowgirls led 27-26 at the half behind a stifling defense that allowed only two second chance points against a high potent Samford offense. The largest lead in the first half was by six points in Samford's favor with 12:29 left in the half. The first half consisted of eight ties and the Cowgirls' largest lead was one point four times in the half.
"Our defensive effort was much improved today. We are getting better defensively every day. This is one of the better offensive teams we will face.
Kendra Wells also scored in double figures for the Cowgirls with 11 points and Ja'Niqua Kendrix added eight rebounds.
Samford came out in the second half and jumped out to a five point lead on back to back three-pointers from Savannah Hill and Emily London. Samford made seven second half treys after making only two in the first half.
"This was a battle. Samford is such a talented, solid team. Their basketball knowledge and play is incredible."
Trailing by as many as nine points early in the second half, McNeese went on a 10-3 run to cut the lead to 41-39 with 12:02 left in the game.
Samford scored on three consecutive layups to increase its lead to 47-39 then held its first double digit lead of the second half with 7:37 left. McNeese would get as close as six points with 1:48 but Samford would score six of their last eight points from the charity stripe where they would end the game making 23 of 33 attempts for a 69.7 percent.
McNeese's offensive output improved from the previous game as the Cowgirls shot 35.8 percent from the field and 65.2 from the free throw line.
McNeese (1-2) will travel to Houston Baptist Tuesday, Nov. 24 for its first road contest of the season. The Cowgirls will also travel to the University of Kentucky Saturday, Nov. 28 before returning home Dec. 2 to host UL-Lafayette.
Courtesy: Kirk Meche
