The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team dropped their third consecutive game on Tuesday evening, falling in the first game of the season at the American Bank Center against visiting UTEP by a final score of 64-53.
The Islanders (3-3) did see a notable milestone in the game despite the loss, with graduate Paige Allen reaching 1,000 points for her career at A&M-Corpus Christi after converting on a trip to the free throw line late in the fourth quarter. Allen finished her day with nine points and 10 rebounds while also blocking a career-best four shots and recording four steals for the fourth game in a row.
Tuesday's contest started off as a back-and-forth battle, as neither team was able to go ahead by more than five points in the other in the first half while trading the lead between each other six different times. The Islanders got a balanced attack on offense in the first half, with graduate Nabaweeyah McGill pacing the team with eight points and Allen and graduate Mireia Aguado both following close behind with five, but the Miners held steady despite this to bring a four-point advantage into the break.
Much like in their previous two games, the third quarter proved to be the Achilles heel for A&M-Corpus Christi. UTEP blitzed the Islanders at the start of the frame in the form of a quick 10-2 run, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, the team's deficit would grow all the way up to 11 points. The Islanders let go of the leash on defense during this period, allowing the Miners to shoot 8-13 from the field after previously holding them at 33 percent or below in each of the first two quarters.
These woes would bleed into the fourth quarter for the home team as well, with A&M-Corpus Christi conceding another 10-4 run en route to falling behind by a game-high 17 points. Allen's milestone trip to the line and a quick flurry by Aguado in the form of a three pointer and a bucket at the rim did help to stem the tide a little bit, but it proved to be too little, too late to mount a serious comeback, and UTEP would walk away with the 11-point win as a result.
One of the big issues for the Islanders on the day proved to be their cold shooting from deep, as they converting just two of their 18 three pointers for a mark of 11.1 percent. On the other side, UTEP knocked down eight of their 23 attempts from that range, leading to an 18-point swing from downtown alone. A&M-Corpus Christi did make this discrepancy up a little bit in the form of a 36-22 advantage in points in the paint, but in the end, the numbers game ended up swinging too far in the other direction.
The biggest bright spot for the Islanders in an otherwise tough night was the performance of McGill, who led the team with 14 points on 6-12 shooting in just 22 minutes off the bench while grabbing seven rebounds and blocking multiple shots for the fourth game in a row and the fifth time this season. Aguado also had a solid day herself, finishing second on the team in points with 12 and matching her season-high with six boards.
The Islanders will now try to snap their losing streak in their next game on Saturday, when they host Our Lady of the Lake at the American Bank Center at 1 p.m.