Nicholls women’s basketball team back at home to take on UAB Saturday

As Nicholls prepares to take on the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the Lady Colonels are coming off a thriller against another Alabama team.

The Lady Colonels trailed at South Alabama by11 points early in the fourth quarter until they came up with a key trip down the court with 2:17 left in the game.

Trailing 55-50, South Alabama’s Kiana Anderson was called for a shooting foul. Anderson protested the ball and received a technical foul.

Ashley Malone, who was fouled on the play, hit both of her free throws. Traya Bruce knocked down the two technical fouls. Malone scored on a layup, giving Nicholls the lead by one point.

With Nicholls leading 61-58, USA’s Michiyah Simmons missed a 3-point attempt, and the Lady Colonels got the rebound and called timeout with 22 seconds remaining.

A tie-up on the inbounds play gave possession to USA. Following a Jaguar miss, a foul sent Violette Skipworth of Nicholls to the free-throw line with 14 seconds left in the game. Skipworth missed both free throws.

Simmons missed a 3-point attempt with three seconds remaining, allowing Nicholls to take the 61-58 victory.

“We talked about making free throws. I think this is one of our best games that we actually shot it on the road from the free-throw line. I think right at 72 percent. We talked about how we needed to get to the free-throw line, and we needed to make free throws in order to win that game. We still missed some clutch ones at the end, but our defense was able to help us finish it off,” Nicholls coach Justin Payne said.

The lady Colonels got to the free-throw line 22 times, hitting 16.

Coming off a stretch of three games in which she scored no more than five points, Lexi Alexander, Nicholls’ inside force, scored a career-high 25 against USA.

In Nicholls’ game prior to the South Alabama game, the Lady Colonels failed to get the ball inside sufficiently as Alexander scored only five points in a 54-46 loss to Alcorn State.

“We just wanted to make sure we worked on it in practice,” Payne said. “We had three tough practices and we wanted to make sure we are going inside.”

“Alcorn State, we saw a lot from that game,” the Nicholls coach continued. “It wasn’t our best outing.

“We watched the film, we took tough criticism, myself included, and we got better. We wanted to make sure that we were playing inside-out and, giving Lexi touches, giving Daelyn (Craig), and whoever’s in there, Kate Manley, Violette, we wanted to make sure we get touches inside and then work inside and out.”

The win over South Alabama improved Nicholls to 6-4 on the season, giving the team one more win than it had for the entire 2022-23 season.

“It’s just really good to be able to do that in the non-conference,” said Payne. “You don’t set out to say, hey, we’re going to get that many wins early or whatever, but you’re just focusing on getting better each and every day, each and every possession. What a credit to our girls and my staff, just the work that they’ve put in thus far is being shown on the win loss column as well.”

When the teams meet at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nicholls will be taking on a UAB team that is 6-2 on the season. The Blazers were on a four-game winning streak before dropping their most recent game 72-62 against Auburn.

Mia Moore, a transfer from Mississippi State, leads the way, averaging 18 points per game.

“She’s a great player. She’s really athletic, really skilled,” Payne said of Moore. “She can score it at all three levels. She’s just a great player. She’s a transfer from a Power 5 (school) and her numbers show it.”

Moore is also the team’s leading rebounder, averaging 9.4 rebounds per game.

“She’s a beast on the boards. She can do it all. She’s just a great player. She’s fast, athletic,” said Payne. “She plays with a motor, and you can tell with her rebounding.

“We’re really going to have to see some bodies (defending Moore), more than one. She will have to see two or three bodies, but it presents challenges because she’s got players that play with her that can shoot the ball extremely well. We’re going to have to do a great job with one-on-one battles and still being able to show her two or three bodies.”

Denim DeShields, Jade Weathersby, and Tracey Bershers all are averaging 10 points per game for UAB.

“This road swing that we had has been crazy. We had like nine games in November,” Payne said. “It’s been tough. I thank God we’ve been able to secure another road victory at South Alabama. It’s gonna mean everything just to actually prepare for a team. We’ve been having one day to prepare for a team. Now, we’re looking forward to having a few days to actually prepare for someone.”

The schedule, Payne said, gives the team a bit of breathing room to prepare for games, but the busy early schedule will help his team get ready for upcoming Southland Conference play.

“Those one days (between games) they prepare us for conference because on Thursday, Saturday, we have to play conference. You get a few days (to prepare) for the Thursday game, and then one day to prepare for that Saturday game.

“That’s one thing that we talked about. Everything that we do prepares you for conference and for March. We want to make sure that we’re doing that, but it’s always going to be great to get back home in front of our home fans.”