Lampo posts career high, double-double in second straight start
SHAWNEE, Okla. — Jessieville graduate Kellie Lampo scored a career-high 26 points and recorded her second straight double-double Saturday, but the Lady Bisons fell to 5-9 overall and 1-5 in Great American Conference play after an
86-76 loss at Oklahoma Baptist. Lampo shot 9-for-14 overall and 8-for-10 to go with 10 rebounds. Oklahoma Baptist scored the first 11 points of the game and made eight 3-pointers to race to a 49-29 lead at halftime. The Lady Bisons returned most of a team that made the NCAA Division II Final Four last season.
The 31 minutes was the most Lampo has played all season. Her previous high was on Thursday, when she scored 11 points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds in 23 minutes in just her second start.
Harding lost 77-76 Thursday at Southern Nazarene in Bethany, Okla. Southern Nazarene took the lead late with two free throws, and Harding missed two layups on its final possession.
Lampo now averages 11 points and 5.1 rebounds per game this season as a freshman.
Next up for Harding is a road game at Southern Arkansas (210, 1-5) in Magnolia on Thursday and a home game in Searcy on Saturday against Ouachita Baptist (7-5, 3-3). Harding and Southern Arkansas are tied for last in the GAC with the University of Arkansas at Monticello
(5-6, 1-5).
Akasha Westbrook, Arkansas State
ATLANTA — Malvern’s Akasha Westbrook was among four players in double figures for Arkansas State Saturday as the Lady Red Wolves defeated Georgia State 75-58 in Sun Belt Conference play.
Westbrook finished with
14 points on 6-for-11 shooting, along with four rebounds and four assists. Her 13.1 points and
30.9 minutes per game led Arkansas State (8-7, 3-1). The redshirt junior also averages 5.3 rebounds per game, ranking her second on the team.
Arkansas State’s leading rebounder, Lauren Bradshaw, led the team with 21 points and seven rebounds against Georgia State (4-11, 0-4). Morgan Wallace added a career-high 13 points, and Payton Tennison finished in double-figures with 10 points.
The Lady Red Wolves scored
29 points off of 19 Georgia State turnovers and scored 14 points off transition. Arkansas State knocked down 49.2 percent of its shot attempts, 30-for-61, and 50 percent beyond the arc,
10-for-20, while Georgia State made just 23 of 64, 35.9 percent, overall and 3 of 17, 17.6 percent, from distance.
Arkansas State’s only Sun Belt defeat was a 77-75 home loss to Louisiana (8-8, 3-1) on Dec. 31. The team will be at home again this week to face Texas State (10-5, 3-1) on Thursday and UT-Arlington (8-7, 2-2) on Saturday.
Exavian Christon, Louisiana Tech
RUSTON, La. — A total team effort was needed by the Louisiana Tech men’s basketball team Saturday as the Bulldogs had six players in double figures for a 97-88 victory over UTEP in front of 3,654 fans inside the Thomas Assembly Center.
The win gave Louisiana Tech (10-7) its first Conference USA win to make the Bulldogs 1-3 in conference play. The team dressed just eight players as two regular starters, DaQuan Bracey and Joniah White, were not available.
Freshman Exavian Christon, of Hot Springs, scored three points and had four rebounds in 22 minutes. He shot 1-for-3 from the field and 1-for-2 at the free throw line.
Christon came off of the bench for the third game in a row. He started three consecutive games in December after Jalen Harris requested a transfer from the university.
His replacement in the starting lineup, freshman Anthony Duruji, posted a career-high 13 points against
UTEP. Freshman Amorie Archibald scored a career-high 15 points, and Oliver Powell, a sophomore, scored 11 points in his first career start.
Louisiana Tech had lost five of its last seven games before the win on Saturday. The Bulldogs will travel on Thursday to face Middle Tennessee (114, 3-0) in a game that will be broadcast nationally on the CBS Sports Network (Resort Channel 32) at 8 p.m. They will then face UAB (11-5, 2-1) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Andre Jones, Little Rock
STATESBORO, Ga. — Andre Jones, of Malvern, and the Little Rock Trojans were downed 72-69 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer Saturday at Georgia Southern.
The Trojans (4-13, 1-3 in Sun Belt Conference play) battled back from a 10-point deficit to take a three-point lead on a dunk by Jones with 4:17 remaining in the game. The Eagles (12-5, 3-1) pulled back ahead before Cameron Corcoran, a freshman guard from Orlando, Fla., drove through the lane to tie the game 69-69 with
18 seconds left. Tookie Brown, a junior from Madison, Ga., drained the 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Eagles to the win.
Jones led all players with 34 minutes and finished with 13 points on 4-for-14 shooting. He also added four rebounds and four assists.
Oliver Black, a redshirt junior forward from Jackson, Miss., shot 7-for-8 to lead the Trojans with 15 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in
30 minutes. Brown led Georgia Southern in scoring with 15 points in 31 minutes.
Little Rock has two home Sun Belt games this week at the Jack Stephens Center. First up is UT-Arlington (11-6, 2-2) at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Texas State (10-7, 3-1) at 5 p.m. on Saturday.