by Richard Thiberville, Jr. | LCU Sports Information
PINEVILLE, La. – The Louisiana Christian University women’s basketball team used a 24-2 run that bracketed the halftime break to turn a ten-point deficit to Jarvis Christian College into a double-digit lead and the Wildcats pulled away from there to end a three-game losing streak with an 82-56 win over the Bulldogs Thursday evening at H.O. West Fieldhouse.
The first quarter was really a harbinger of things to come as the Wildcats found themselves trailing 12-7 with less than 90 seconds left in the period following a slow start, only to finish the quarter on a 6-0 run as Noa Fernandez Fuentes, Paola Abad Prieto, and Kieyoomia Benally (Navajo) all scored in the closing moments to give LCU a 13-12 lead heading into the second quarter.
But the slow production from the first quarter continued into the second, allowing Jarvis Christian to go on a 15-5 run that turned a 16-16 game with 7:45 left in the quarter into a 31-21 Bulldog lead following a three-pointer with 4:15 left before halftime. But that’s where the flip switched for the Wildcats, both offensively and defensively, kicking off the game-turning run. It started with seven-straight Wildcat points as Claire Borot sank a three-pointer to spark things off. Kieyoomia Benally stole the ball on Jarvis’ next possession, which resulted in a fast break opportunity where she got fouled. She sank both ensuing free throws. After a miss on the other end, Kayla Kinney grabbed the rebound and found Paola Abad Prieto behind the defense for a lay-up to cap the 7-0 run and make it a three-point game.
Jarvis got a bucket to stem the tide for a moment and re-up their lead to five points, but it was only a temporary push-back as LCU scored the quarter’s final seven points over the last 90 seconds to take the lead into the half. Abad Prieto found Benally cutting to the rim for a lay-up, Fernandez Fuentes sank a pair of free throws, and Abad Prieto capped the period with a three-pointer with just seconds left to cap the quarter-ending 14-2 run and send the Wildcats, once down ten with just more than four minutes left, into the locker room with a two-point lead, 35-33.
That run continued into the start of the third quarter as Noa Fernandez Fuentes worked her way into the paint and scored, starting a 10-0 run to open the period, finished off by back-to-back three-pointers by Benally to give LCU a 45-33 advantage with less than seven minutes left in the third period, capping the 24-2 run that started with the Wildcats down ten in the second quarter and ending with LCU up 12 in the third.
After Jarvis scored three straight to get the LCU lead back down to nine, Miya McKinney hit a jumper with 4:30 left in the third and the Wildcat lead was back in double-figures, where it would remain for the rest of the contest. That McKinney bucket started an 8-0 run for LCU, which was capped by a six-point possession by the Wildcats. As Maya Washington hit a jumper, a Jarvis player was tagged with a technical foul, giving LCU two free throws and possession again. Kieyoomia Benally hit the technical free throws before a foul on the ensuing LCU possession put Kayla Kinney at the line for a pair, which she hit, to put the Wildcats up 53-36 with 2:46 left in the period. The Bulldogs hit back-to-back three-pointers to cut that lead back down to 11, but another period-ending run all but put the score out of reach as LCU finished the final two minutes of the period on a 7-0 push, started by a Kieyoomia Benally transition three and capped by a pair of Kayla Kinney free throws that gave LCU a 60-42 lead heading to the final quarter.
Kelsey McNeal got things started in the fourth quarter with a steal and lay-up the other way, opening the lead to 20 points. When Paula Ferrer Nolla went one-of-two at the stripe with just less than seven minutes left, it capped a 7-0 start to the period for LCU and the greater 14-0 run by the Wildcats that started back in the third quarter, putting LCU up 67-42. LCU’s lead would not dip below 20 points the rest of the game while peaking at 29 points as DaKayla Howard hit a pair of free throws with 1:23 left to make the score 81-52 as the Wildcats cruised to the win.
Kieyoomia Benally continued her run of good scoring games, going six-of-11 from the field, including four-of-eight from above the arc, and hit seven of her eight free throw attempts to finish with 23 points. She was also credited with four steals and three assists in the win while being needed for just 24 minutes of game action. Paola Abad Prieto went five-of-ten from the field, including two-of-four from three-point range, to finish with 12 points. Miya McKinney was all over the boards as she grabbed 11 rebounds, the fifth time this season she’s gotten double-digit rebounds.
LCU hit 45% of its shots in the contest and went 20-of-25 at the charity stripe in the win. The Wildcat defense held the Bulldogs to just 31.7% as a team while sending JCC to the free throw line just 12 times in the contest, where the Bulldogs made nine of their free throw attempts.
