Ladies Win Thriller Over Tornados On Friday
The Centenary women's basketball team edged the Concordia University Tornados 63-62 on Friday in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest inside the Gold Dome.
Shreveport - The Centenary women's basketball team edged the Concordia University Tornados 63-62 on Friday in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest inside the Gold Dome.
The Ladies (3-13, 2-5 SCAC) snapped their eight-game losing streak with Friday's win over the Tornados (5-11, 2-5 SCAC) and won their first home game of the season to improve to 1-5 while Concordia dropped to 1-5 on the road.
Concordia led 23-19 after the first quarter but a 17-13 advantage in the second by the Ladies sent the teams to the locker room tied at 36-36 at halftime. Centenary then edged the Tornados 15-14 in the third and each team scored 12 points in the final period.
Both teams shot the ball as the Ladies finished 22-55 (40.0 %) from the floor and the Tornados were 25-58 for 41.4 %. Centenary went 7-16 (43.8 %) from beyond the arc and 12-16 at the free-throw line while Concordia was 10-23 (43.5 %) from 3-point range and 4-4 at the FT line. The Ladies won the rebounding battle 37-29, each team finished with 18 points in the paint, and Centenary finished with an edge in both second-chance points (10-7) and fastbreak points (7-2).
Centenary turned the ball over 20 times which Concordia turned into 14 points and the Ladies also scored 14 points off of 16 Tornados' turnovers. The Ladies recorded 11 steals and nine assists and the Tornados finished with 18 assists, 12 steals, and four blocked shots. The Concordia bench contributed 25 points and Centenary's scored 10. The game featured nine ties and 13 lead changes with Centenary's largest lead of the game being three points and Concordia's nine.
Senior G Amiyah Barrow (Baton Rouge, La.) led all scorers with a season-high 20 points as she played 34 minutes and finished 8-10 from the floor, 2-2 from beyond the arc, and 2-2 at the FT line. Barrow added three assists, three rebounds, and one assist. Barrow scored in double figures for the eighth time this season and for the fifth time in seven games.
Junior F Natalya Senat (Killeen, Texas) had the best game of her career with an impressive double-double that featured career highs in both points (10) and rebounds (14). She played 26 minutes and finished 4-8 from the floor and 2-2 at the FT line with two steals and one assist.
Sophomore G Julissa Cabrera (Denham Springs, La.) matched her season high with 10 points as she was 3-4 at the FT line in 28 minutes with a trey, two assists, and two steals. Senior G Savannah Stowers (Waller, Texas) scored eight in 25 minutes off the bench with three rebounds, two steals, and an assist. Senior F Layla Powell (Fort Worth, Texas) also scored eight points as she went 2-5 from the floor, 2-4 from beyond the arc, and 2-4 at the FT line in 24 minutes with two rebounds.
Senior F Kyra Stokes (Shreveport, La.) scored five points and grabbed six rebounds in 27 minutes with three assists and was 3-4 at the FT line and freshman F Emily Cortez (Thibodaux, La.) played seven minutes and had two points. Sophomore G Madison Fontenot (Mamou, La.) came off the bench and played a very important 17 minutes and finished with five rebounds, an assist, and a steal.
Three Concordia players scored in double figures, led by 12 from Shanna Brown and Kiyah Hatcher and Zoiey Jumawan had 10. Katelyn Tietjen had seven, Briann Warehime and Aja Holmes each scored five, Taysie Trejo and Alice Wilkinson had four, and Alexa Romero scored three.
The Tornados got off to a quick start as they held leads of 10-4, 17-10, and 20-12 in the first quarter. Down by eight (20-12) with just 1:56 remaining in the first period, the Ladies closed on a 7-3 run capped by a buzzer-beating trey from Cabrera to make it 23-19 after 10 minutes.
The Ladies remained close throughout the first part of the second quarter, chipping away until finally managing to tie the game at 31-31 at the 4:08 mark on a 3-pointer by Powell. Then each team scored five points over the last four minutes of the quarter to send the game into the break deadlocked at 36-36.
Stokes' layup 10 seconds into the second half made it 38-36 and marked the Ladies' first lead since being up 4-3 in the first two minutes of the game. Ten ties/lead changes followed as the pace picked up and the teams traded baskets and fought to take control of the game. Down 48-45 at the 3:18 mark of the third quarter, Stowers nailed a trey to tie the game at 48-48 with 1:36 on the clock and then 37 seconds later, she hit from deep again to give the Ladies a 51-48 lead. Warehime made a pair of free throws to cut the Ladies' lead to 51-50 as the game headed to its final chapter.
The fourth quarter was low scoring but did not lack drama. Tietjen scored the first points of the quarter at the 8:35 mark to give the Tornados a 52-51 lead and then two free throws by Barrow allowed the Ladies to regain the lead at 53-52 with eight minutes left. Two-straight baskets by Concordia made it 56-53 but Barrow drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 56-56 at the 4:29 mark.
Brown then sank a pair of free throws and followed those with a basket to make it 60-56 Concordia with 3:06 remaining. Following a Centenary timeout, Barrow continued her hot shooting as she connected on a jumper at the 2:30 mark to make it 60-58 and tied the game at 60-60 on another basket just 21 seconds later. Trejo's basket with 2:06 remaining gave the Tornados a 62-60 lead, but that would be their final lead and final points of the game.
Cabrera was fouled with 1:15 left and went 1-2 at the FT line to make it 62-61. Trejo then turned the ball over on Concordia's next possession as Cabrera stole the ball and made a layup with only 44 seconds remaining to give the Ladies a 63-62 lead. Brown then turned the ball over but Trejo stole it right back from Cabrera with just 19 seconds left as Concordia called a timeout. The final seconds were a frenzied situation for both teams as Trejo missed a layup that was rebounded by Brown who then missed a short attempt herself that was rebounded by Trejo and then Brown's last-gasp jumper was no good as the Ladies escaped with the thrilling victory.
REMINDER: The Ladies' league contest against Texas Lutheran University in the Gold Dome on Saturday has been postponed due to the potential for hazardous winter weather this weekend. Information regarding a potential reschedule date/time/location is TBD.
The Ladies will return to action next weekend at home versus Austin College and the University of Dallas, facing the 'Roos on Friday, Jan. 30 at 7:30 PM and the Crusaders on Saturday at 6 PM.
For more information or to donate to Centenary athletics and the women's basketball program, visit gocentenary.com/gocentenary/C_Club.
See the complete Ladies' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/wbkb/2025-26/schedule
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