After losing an 8-0 lead early in the first half, the Sam Houston Lady Broncos battled back in the second half for a 48-38 win over Marksville on Wednesday in Moss Bluff.

“We jumped out to an 8-0 lead then we got a little comfortable and lackadaisical,” Sam Houston head coach Korey Arnold said. “Marksville is a very quality opponent and they probably would have beat us by 50 points last year.

“We talked about at halftime why they (Marksville had a four point lead. I thought that it was because we did not rebound very well. I thought that we did much better in the second half. We settled down on defense and got those clutch rebounds. That was the difference in the game. Overall I am happy. We are getting where we need to be in our program. The kids played hard.”

After a layup on a fastbreak by Constance Johnson at the beginning of the third quarter, the Lady Broncos found themselves down 24-18.

A 10-4 run and seven turnovers by Marksville (4-7) got the Lady Broncos back into the game when Gabriel Boudreaux got a putback to tie it at 28-28 with 2:57 left in the third quarter.

Sam Houston (10-4) tied the game two more times in the third quarter but could not get the lead back until the fourth quarter.

Kim Kennedy tie the game at 34-34 right at the end of the third quarter on a layup and Haley Cook hit one of two free throws to give Sam Houston a 35-34 lead early in the fourth quarter.

An 11-2 run finally swung the momentum back to the Lady Broncos for good with a 46-36 lead with a minute left on another putback by Boudreaux.

Boudreaux finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Boudreaux helped to give the Lady Broncos the advantage on the offensive boards with 8 of her 12 points coming on putbacks.

Sam Houston jumped out to a 8-0 behind six points from Kim Kennedy but the Lady Tigers went on a 10-0 run to take a 10-8 lead capped by a putback by MarKeisha Johnson with 6:43 left in the second quarter.

Marksville led by as much as six points, 20-14 after a shot in the lane by Brittany Shockley but Sam Houston was able to cut the lead to four on two shots in the lane by Haley Carrier before halftime.

Kennedy led all scorers with a game-high 18 points. Carrier finished with seven points, five assists and four steals.

MarKeisha Johnson led Marksville with 13 points.

The Lady Broncos will host the Rumble on the Bluff tournament starting today. The tournament will feature 15 teams including Grant, Barbe, Iota, Sulphur, St. Martinville, Dutchtown, Denham Springs, Catholic-New Iberia, Northshore, Hamilton Christian, Grand Isle, White Castle, Abbeville and Notre Dame.

Notes: The game was originally scheduled for December 4th but was moved to December 16th because of severe winter weather.