JOURNAL SPORTS
The Red River Athletic Conference champion LSUS women’s basketball team could not overcome a miserable shooting night Friday and was upset in the first round of the NAIA Women’s Basketball Tournament, while the LSUS men were blitzed by 60 percent aim by Georgetown (Ky.) in an opening-round loss in the NAIA men’s bracket.
HUNTINGTON (Ind.) 64, LSUS WOMEN 56: The Foresters (18-12) never trailed as the Pilots could connect on only 27.5 percent of their shots in the upset on a neutral court at Hastings, Neb.
Huntington was a 12th-seed in the regional compared to a No. 5 seed for LSUS (27-4), but halted the Pilots’ 22-game winning streak. The Foresters quickly opened a 15-5 lead after one period and were up 31-19 at halftime before LSU, ranked 25th nationally, closed the gap in the third period to five points and whittled the margin to 54-52 with 3:32 remaining.
But Huntington’s center, Liv Raby, canned two free throws and converted a three-point play to push the Foresters’ lead to 59-52, and the winners went 4-for-4 at the line in the last minute to close the door.
The Foresters made 37.5 percent from the field and outrebounded the Pilots 53-46. LSU made only 3 of 18 behind the 3-point arc. Paula Gonzales Herrera scored 14 and Alexis Brown 12 for the Pilots.
Huntington was beaten Saturday night by the host Hastings team, ranked 18th nationally and seeded fourth in the region.
GEORGETOWN 92, LSUS MEN 78: In Georgetown, Ky., the fourth-ranked Tigers were hot on their homecourt but still struggled to dispatch the Pilots until a late 10-1 run boosted Georgetown’s lead into double figures.
Tyler Washington scored 21 to lead the Pilots, with Devonte Austin contributing 17. Tahjae Hill added 15, Taj Anderson 11 and Trey Boston 10 for LSUS (18-12), which reached the NAIA postseason for the 21st consecutive season.
Georgetown’s Andres Burney went 10-for-10 in the second half, scoring all of his 24 points to lead five double-digit scorers for the Tigers (27-4), who breezed through their second-round game Saturday night and advanced to the 16-team national tournament event in Kansas City next week. Georgetown is the only NAIA program with a longer postseason streak than LSUS, having reached 34 straight NAIA Tournaments.