Nicholls women play at Grambling for final tune-up for start of conference play

When Nicholls plays at Grambling at noon Wednesday in the final non-conference game of the season for the Lady Colonels, it will be a matchup of teams that each have alternated wins and losses over the last seven games.

If the trend is to continue, something has to give since each team is coming off a loss.

“We’re just excited about us continuing to get better and better each and every day as we’re preparing for conference play,” said first-year Nicholls coach Justin Payne, whose team is 6-5 on the season. “We want to make sure that we’re going into conference play the right way. I think we’re getting better and better each day.

“Our girls are forming a chemistry and a bond. We’re enjoying it. We don’t want this process to not be fun. We want to continue for them to have some fun in this grind of collegiate basketball. We’re just excited. We think we have the pieces to go to Grambling and do it. We just have to play like it.”

The Lady Colonels are coming off a 73-62 home loss to the University of Alabama-Birmingham in their most recent outing.

Poor starts in the second and third quarters doomed Nicholls in its loss to Alabama-Birmingham.

UAB scored the first eight points of the second quarter to build a 12-point advantage. The Lady Colonels spent the rest of the quarter getting back in the game, eventually leading to a 32-32 tie at halftime.

The Blazers scored the first seven points of the third quarter as part of a 16-2 run to give UAB a 14-point lead less than five minutes into the second half. The deficit proved to be too much for the Lady Colonels to overcome in falling 73-63.

“UAB, without that third quarter, we felt like we would have been able to keep them in the 50s. They had that 30-point third quarter and I think that was the most points that we gave up all year. We want to be able to get back to our defensive prowess and holding teams down into this 50, 60 game. Let’s see if we can start it at Grambling,” said Payne.

Nicholls goes into the Grambling game with mixed news.

On the negative front, the Lady Colonels will be without Ashley Malone, who has been lost for the season after she ruptured her Achilles.

“We’re really going to miss Ashley,” Payne said. “Her athleticism was one of the one things that I wanted when I came in with recruiting, we wanted to get more athletic. Ashley definitely did that for us and her being out for the year, it’s a blow to our team, not only just her athleticism, but her personality and her energy that she brought to our squad on a day-to-day basis.

“It’s a blow, but this process, you have to overcome adversity. Our girls are looking to overcome it.”

Amelia Sandie, a red-shirt junior, has been medically cleared to play after a long rehabilitation from a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament in her right knee.

“It’s going to take a few weeks for her to get into the process of the swing of thing,” said Payne. “First, cross the mental hurdle, and to just physically to get back in it.

“These kids (her teammates) really had four or five months to really learn our offense and everything like that. She’s been more so to try and get back. Now, she’s in. There’s a process that goes with that. We need her to continue to get right mentally and see what she can do for us after that on the floor.”

Leading Grambling on the floor has been DeMya Young, who is averaging 12.5 points per game.

“DeMya Young, she can really, really score it. She can shoot it anywhere in the gym. She really hurt Arizona State. They had a big win over Arizona State. She made like seven (3-pointers) against them,” said Payne.

Grambling is 4-5 on the season with one of its wins being a 70-67 victory over Arizona State.

The double-figure scorer for the Lady Tigers is Douthshine Prien, who is averaging 12.5 points per game.

“Prien is a guard we’re familiar with at Pensacola State Junior College,” said Payne. “She’s athletic, can play in gaps and steal. This Grambling team is really good and athletic. They can get after you in a number of ways – the defensive end, on the rebounding end. If you are turning it over, it’s almost a (sure) bet they are going to turn them into points.

“We know we have to take care of the basketball and we know we have to box out and rebound.”

Brenda McKinney leads the team in rebounding, averaging 6.5 rebounds per game.

Grambling may be adding another weapon in Kahia Warmsley. The Tulane transfer was one of a number of players awaiting ruling allowing immediate eligibility without having to seek a waiver.

“With all the NCAA regulations she’s probably eligible to go now,” Payne said. “They are a really good ball club. They’re talented. They’ve got a bunch of Division I transfers, JUCO transfers.

Getting better each possession, both offensively and defensively, said Payne, is the goal going into the final non-conference game.

“One of the things that we’ve been working all preseason, all non-conference long and from game to game as things change and we have to adjust, we just want to make sure we’re doing all those little things so that we can carry that over into conference. One thing I would like to see is if we could continue to defend at a high level that we’ve been defending at,” the Nicholls coach said.

Following the Grambling game, the Lady Colonels will be off until January 4 when they host Southeastern Louisiana in the Southland Conference opener.