Lady Rams Move on in Postseason

MOBILE, Ala-- The 4th-seeded University of Mobile women's basketball team took care of business and defeated 5th-seeded LSU-Shreveport 78-65 at home in the quarterfinals of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Wednesday.

The first half of play was sloppy as both teams shot under 40% and combined for 29 turnovers, but Mobile found another way to get the ball in the basket. They got to the free throw line with great regularity and more importantly, converted. The Lady Rams hit 13-of-14 shots from the charity stripe, compared to only 2-of-2 from the Lady Pilots.

But, Mobile didn't cruise the whole period, actually LSU-S took a 19-18 lead at the 6:46 mark, but Mobile answered back with a decisive run. The Lady Rams, behind 12 first-half points from Angela Bounds, went on a 14-2 run over the next 4:41 to jump out to an 11 point lead, 35-21.

The Lady Rams held on for a 36-26 half-time advantage. Half number 2 saw much better basketball, with both teams converting on over 50% of their shots and about 10 fewer turnovers.

Mobile again, got to the free throw line, hitting 13-of-17 compared to 9-of-12 for LSU-S and kept a big enough cushion throughout the game. The Lady Pilots were able to cut the lead down to 5 on two occasions (48-43 @ 13:41, 69-64 @ 2:08), but could not get any closer as Mobile continued to have an answer.

Bounds finished with a team-leading 17 points and 6 assists, while Emmerentia Ledwaba added 16 points on 8-of-8 shooting from the free throw line. Rheonda Leary rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points.

Mobile will travel to #1 seed Loyola for a semifinal matchup Friday, March 2nd at 7:00. The Lady Rams are 20-11 on the season and dropped both regular season matchups with Loyola.