Feb. 24, 2004

Corpus Christi, Texas - In a battle for the top spot among the independents, Texas A&M Corpus Christi (19-9) knocked off Texas-Pan American (12-14) 62-36. The Islanders finish 4-0 among independents while the Lady Broncs ended up 2-2.

For most of the first 14 minutes, this game was a tight one. A jumper from Molly Schamel (Jr./Hector, N.Y./Yavapai College) made it 15-12 with 5:58 left to go. The Islanders put on a 15-5 run to end the half with a 27-17 lead. A pivotal play came when Kristi Dudley (Fr./Cedar Hill, Texas/Cedar Hill HS) hit a lay-up with 49 seconds to go and the whistle blew. Dudley, though was called for a charge and the bucket was disallowed.

The Lady Broncs hung in there and refused to quit. A jumper by Jennifer Piwonka (Jr./Louise, Texas/Louise HS) cut the margin to nine, 34-25 with 12:30 to go. TAMUCC scored nine straight points over the next two minutes to put the game away.

For UTPA, Schamel and Arrita Oler (Jr./Rialto, Calif./Coffeyville CC) had six points each. MaHogany Daniel (Fr./Corpus Christi, Texas/Mary Carroll HS) was a defensive force with seven defensive rebounds. Amanda Carlow (Sr./Pine Ridge, S.D./Northeast JC) had four assists to give her 93 for the season, the 7th best single-season mark in Lady Bronc history.

For TAMUCC, Kirbria Lewis had 15 points and Nicole Duncan had 13 points.

" I thought we had great effort and tried to defend to the best of our abilities." Said head coach DeAnn Craft. "It was an extremely rugged and physical game with absolutely no flow. We are more of a finesse team and I have to commend our kids for keeping it as close as they could. We just succumbed to the pressure in the second half. They did a really good job of playing physical on Amanda and keeping her out of the game."

Texas-Pan American closes out the 2003-04 home season vs. Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday, February 28. The game is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m.