SAN ANTONIO – The University of the Incarnate Word women's basketball team narrowly defeated Lamar in overtime, 68-67, Wednesday night at the McDermott Center, to sweep the season series.
 
UIW (14-12, 10-7 SLC) picked up just its second program win against Lamar (9-18, 5-13 SLC) in the battle of the Cardinals.
 
"Once again extremely proud of the resiliency and the toughness to come back in the fashion that we did," head coach Jeff Dow said. "A ton of credit to Lamar to come out and put the effort that they did given the tough stretch of games that they are in at the moment." 
 
"I'm not trying to make a habit of winning Wednesday night games by one point, but as we told the team last week and again tonight, at the end of the day if we put up another 'W', then we're happy."
 
Lamar scored a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the game to start with a lead that was halted by UIW as it went on a 7-0 run ignited by a three from Imani Robinson. The Lamar Cardinals tied the game two more times in the period, but UIW took a narrow lead, 15-13, off of a layup by Lunden Henry heading into the second quarter.
 
UIW was down by eight points midway through the second quarter. The Cardinals went on a 10-4 run capped by Kara Speer, who was under the basket to grab the offensive board and put away a layup that closed out the first half in UIW's favor, 26-25.
 
Speer's layup opened the second half, but Lamar responded with a 9-0 run to take the lead, where once again, the Lamar Cardinals led midway through the period. UIW made a comeback when Angelica Wiggins made back-to-back 3-pointers and Destiny Jenkins made one of her own to take a one-point lead. Lamar outscored UIW 6-4 to keep the lead heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Lamar opened the fourth quarter on a 4-0 run to extend its lead. UIW went on an 8-3 run, with Robinson scoring six of the eight, to tie the game 49-49. The teams went bucket-for-bucket once again. With ten seconds left on the clock, Robinson was fouled while attempting a layup, where she went to the line to make both free throws and send game into overtime.
 
Lamar took an early two-point lead in overtime, but once again Robinson's accuracy from the free-throw line tied the game. The Lamar Cardinals went to the line shortly after to take back the lead, but a layup from Wiggins in the paint would tie the game again. With 45 seconds on the clock, Lamar held a three-point lead, but a layup by Starr Omozee made it a one-point game.
 
Speer grabbed an offensive board in UIW's final possession off a shot from Wiggins. She then made the basket to put UIW in front with two seconds left and Lamar was unable to convert on their end of the court.
 
NOTABLES

• Senior guard Imani Robinson led the team with 21 points, going 5-10 from the field and 10-13 from the free-throw line. She had a team-high seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.
• UIW outrebounded Lamar 42-27.
• The UIW Cardinals were at the free throw line 26 times and made 15 (55.7%).
• UIW shot 33 percent from beyond the arc, while holding Lamar to 20 percent.
• Senior guard Angelica Wiggins dropped 13 points, going 3-6 from beyond the arc and 4-9 in the paint while grabbing a season-high five rebounds.
• Kara Speer, who had the winning basket, scored 12 points, shooting 5-13 in the paint and grabbing two offensive boards which she converted for points.

 
QUOTING COACH DOW
Statistical notables…
Some of the things that stood out from a statistical perspective were that we outrebounded them 42-27, that was huge, while holding them to only four offensive rebounds. In the process, we outscored them in second-chance points nine to zero, the last two of those were the ones that Kara Speer put back to give us the lead in the final seconds. We always talk about being disciplined in terms of not fouling and they were a team that averaged over 20 free throws per game and we held them to ten in the course of 45 minutes. On the flip side we got 26 free throws. 
 
On the individual standouts…
Imani Robinson once again came up huge. She is our go-to player a lot of times she's is going to draw fouls, this game she drew ten fouls which just shows you how much attention she's getting. I thought a number of players made big plays. Our freshman Destiny Jenkins hit a big three. Starr Omozee also game us a big lift taking two offensive charges while grabbing seven rebounds. Also, on that final play on the go-ahead bucket, Angelica Wiggins showed a lot of courage taking it hard to the rim, drawing multiple defenders while Omozee put up a great screen, which led to the offensive rebound opportunity. 
 
STAY TUNED 
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