Poor shooting, sluggish play sink Nicholls women in 69-63 loss to UNO

Poor shooting from the start led to sluggish play for both teams yet Nicholls found itself still in the game against the University of New Orleans until a key sequence in the middle of the fourth quarter Thursday night at Stopher Gym.

Nicholls never trailed by more than six in the second half and the teams were trading points for much of the fourth quarter until two free throws by Brianna Ellis and a three-point play by Nahja Scott gave the Privateers their biggest lead of the game at nine points, 59-50, with 4:37 remaining in the game.

The Lady Colonels quickly responded on a 3-pointer by Deonna Brister and a basket by Brister while driving to the lane to pull Nicholls to within 59-55.

UNO’s Nora Francois, who finished with 12 points, committed a charge on the next possession, giving Nicholls a chance to cut further into the lead but the Lady Colonels failed to score. The Privateers made it a seven-point game on an Alexis Calderon 3-pointer.

Kyla Hamilton answered with a 3-pointer with 1:50 left in the game but UNO hit free throws down the stretch, connecting on 10 of 13 in the fourth quarter to hand Nicholls a 69-63 loss.

“Time was against us after that and you can’t go bucket-for-bucket at that point,” Nicholls coach Justin Payne said. “You know you need stops. You’ve got to string them in a row, and you’ve got to put the ball in the hole

“Unfortunately, tonight we couldn’t do it and but I’m looking to continue to grow with our team. I felt like we made some strides. We need to continue to get better. We’re not going to let one loss get us too down. It’s a long season. We got a bunch of games left and we just need to make sure we’re getting better and better and better. The Southland’s wide open and we just need to make sure our team is getting better.”

“We really tried to catch back up, but honestly, God just didn’t have it in for us today. But we’re going to take everything we learned to take today and take it over to our next game,” said Nicholls post player Lexi Alexander, who finished with 15 points, but held to six in the first half.

“The biggest thing was turnovers tonight,” said guard Mikayla Etienne, who scored 11 of her team-high 16 points in the opening quarter, mostly from the perimeter. “That’s what hurt us a lot. Now I know, especially me. I hurt us some with turnovers, but we’re just gonna get back in the lab, work on it for the next game for Lamar and be ready to beat them.”

Nicholls, which fell to 1-2 in the Southland and 7-8 overall, will host Lamar at 1 p.m. Saturday.

UNO improved to 2-1 in the Southland and 5-9 overall.

Despite shooting only 37.5 percent from the field, Nicholls managed to trail only 37-33 at halftime.

Lady Colonels made a concerted effort to get Alexander the ball in the third quarter. Two free throws by Brister, a basket in the paint by Alexander, and a layup by Betzalys Delgado off an assist by Alexander, pulled Nicholls to within one point at 43-42 at the 2:02 mark of the third quarter.

With Alexander scoring on a three-point play following a fast-break basket with an assist by Curtis, she hit another two free throws as Nicholls trailed by one point before Pryor, who scored a game-high 21 points, hit a basket with 25 seconds left to give UNO a 49-46 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“It was a collective effort because I knew I started scoring that would get them (perimeter shooters) even more open so we could knock down even more open shots. So I knew if I did my job, they could get their job done,” said Alexander, who scored seven points in the third quarter.

“At halftime, Coach was telling us we to get paint touches more. We needed to look inside even if we gotta go inside and out and back inside to get her going. Just whatever we need to do to get 21 (Alexander) the ball,” Etienne said.

A pair of 3-pointers by Etienne and two free throws after missing a 3-pointer when fouled provided the early points for Nicholls while UNO countered with a four-point play when Francois hit a free throw after being fouled after connecting on a 3-pointer to give the Privateers an 8-7 lead.

UNO went on to build a lead of as many as seven points at 19-12 following a layup by Pryor.

That led to Nicholls Payne calling a timeout. Etienne quickly responded with another 3-pointer as part of her 10-point first-quarter effort to start a Lady Colonels rally.

“I kept my momentum going and my teammates just had my back, kept telling me to shoot the ball and stay ready. They really motivated me, and we helped get stops on the defensive end as well the first half,” Etienne said.

A 3-pointer by Brister, who finished with 11 points, tied the game at 21-21 as Nicholls went on to trail 23-22 after the first quarter.

A 3-pointer by Britiya Curtis, who scored 11 points, put Nicholls on top 31-28 early in the second quarter.

UNO took the lead at 32-31 with 3:27 remaining in the second quarter on a layup by Scott and kept it for the remainder of the game.

Most of Nicholls’ points in the first half came from the perimeter with Alexander not a scoring factor in the opening 20 minutes.

Held to six points, Alexander scored with 14 seconds to pull Nicholls to within 37-33 at halftime.

Nicholls now has two days to move on before facing Lamar on Saturday. The Cardinals, who defeated McNeese 82-50 on Thursday, are 3-0 in the SLC and 9-4 overall.

“It’s a tough one because we lost on our home court, but you’ve got to have almost a memory like a defensive back. We’ve got to forget about this one, learn from it and get better and move on to a great Lamar team on Saturday.”