Wednesday January 31, 2018: Women's Basketball

Eunice, LA

Despite outscoring the Lady Bengals in the second half, the Lady Bears could not overcome the first half deficit.  Final score of tonight's opening round of LCCAC play, was LSUE Lady Bengals 73 and Baton Rouge Lady Bears 64.  LSUE improves to 17-2 on the season , 1-0 in conference play while Baton Rouge falls to 5-12, 0-1 in conference play.

The Lady Bengals started the game, sparked by the crowd's energy, with very aggressive defense and a 9 - 0 run over the Lady Bears.  BRCC then went on a 10 to 2 run of their own to close the scoring gap to 11-10 with 3:55 to go in the first quarter. LSUE then finished the first quarter on a 7 to 3 run.  The first quarter score was Lady Bengals 20 and Lady Bears 13. 

The second quarter was a copy of the first quarter.  The Lady Bengals used their press to force the Lady Bears into turnovers and transition baskets.  LSUE largest lead of the second quarter was 14 points. At Halftime, LSUE held a 39 to 26 lead over the Lady Bears. Baton Rouge scored 13 points in the second quarter, which 5 of those points being scored by Celica Sterling.

The second half was a different story for the Lady Bears.  Baton Rouge settled down and was able to figure out LSUE's defense and at one point only trailed the Lady Bengals by 6 points, in the third quarter. BRCC was able to get some offensive boards and force the Lady Bengals into some turnovers.  The aggressive play by the Lady Bears kept the Lady Bengals from setting up their press,which was effective in the first half. LSUE closed the third quarter on an 11-3 run over the Lady Bears.  At the end of the third quarter the score was LSUE 57 and BRCC 43. In the fourth quarter BRCC outscored LSUE 21 to 16. LSUE could not find a solution to stop Celica Sterling or Kayla Watson, which combined for 14 points in the fourth quarter. The duo combined for 47 of the Bears 64 points in the game.  The closest BRCC got to the LSUE, in the fourth quarter, was 7 points at 69 to 62. Baton Rouge outscored LSUE in the second half 38 to 34.

LSUE out rebounded BRCC 49 to 34. The Lady Bengals also forced the Lady Bears into 24 turnovers compared to their 19.  But LSUE only shot 38 % from the field compared to BRCC 43 % from the field. 

Lady Bears Highlights

Celica Sterling led everyone in scoring with 26 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block

Kayla Watson scored 21 point on 50 % from the field.  She also had 7 rebounds and was 4 for 8 from the free throw line.

Aliyah Cooper added 8 points and 5 rebounds

Mariah Jones had 5 assist and 3 steals

The Lady Bears will be back in action this Saturday February 3 at Delgado Community College.  Game time is 2:00 pm.  This is also a LCCAC conference game.