Brister, Curtis shoot Nicholls women’s basketball team past Incarnate Word

The Nicholls women’s basketball team needed all of Deonna Brister’s career-high 19 points and Britiya Curtis’ 18-point effort in a 65-59 win for the Lady Colonels at the University of Incarnate Word on Thursday night in San Antonio.

Nicholls snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 2-3 in the Southland Conference and 8-9 overall. UIW fell to 2-3 in the league and 9-7 overall.

It wasn’t just the output by Brister and Curtis, but the timing of the scoring.

Curtis scored 10 points in the opening quarter to stake Nicholls to a 22-14 lead after one quarter on the way to a 29-28 edge at halftime.

After UIW hit the first basket of the second half to take the lead, Brister took over in the third quarter. She scored 10 points in the quarter, enabling Nicholls to lead 48-40 after three quarters.

UIW got as close as two points late in the fourth quarter, but Curtis hit 6 of 8 free throws in the final 48 seconds of the game that allowed Nicholls to hold on for the win.

Leading 33-32, Nicholls went on an eight-point run in the middle of the third quarter. A shot off the glass by Kyla Hamilton, a three-point play by Brister and a Brister 3-pointer put their team on top 41-32 on the way to a 48-40 lead heading into the final period.

Nicholls was able to stretch its lead in the third quarter despite Lexi Alexander being forced to the bench with three fouls at the 7:00 mark of the quarter. The normally-dominant inside player was sent to the bench with only two points and finished the game with four points.

Brister hit a basket to open the fourth quarter to put Nicholls on top 50-40, with the 10-point margin equaling the biggest lead for the Lady Colonels in the game.

Aliyah Collins rallied UIW, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers and hitting a free throw to cut the Nicholls lead down to three points. A free throw by Destiny Terrell made the score 54-52 with 2:45 left in the game.

Curtis knocked down her free throws in the closing seconds, allowing Nicholls to take the 65-59 win.

Along with Brister and Curtis’ efforts, Hamilton tossed in 11 points for Nicholls.

Collins led UIW with 14 points, while Nina De Leon Negron tossed in 10.

UIW turned the ball over 20 times, compared to nine for Nicholls. The Lady Colonels’ 16 points off of turnovers, compared to nine for the Cardinals.

The opening half featured two stark contrasts.

As hot as Nicholls was in the opening 10 minutes behind the shooting of Curtis to build a lead of as much as 10 points, that’s how cold the Lady Colonels were in the second quarter, but still managed a 29-28 lead at halftime.

Nicholls and UIW were tied 7-7 before the Lady Colonels went on a 10-0 run over a span of 2:23 to take a 17-7 lead.

The run included a pair of 3-pointers by Curtis, a reverse layup by Alexander and a 3-pointer by Brister.

A 3-pointer by UIW’s Brenna Perez ended the run, making the score 17-10 at the 3:25 mark of the first quarter.

Offensive rebounds kept UIW in the game in the opening quarter. The Cardinals’ first seven points of the game came off of three offensive rebounds. UIW totaled six offensive rebounds in the first quarter.

After UIW cut the deficit to five points, Delgado Betzalys hit a 3-pointer with 34 seconds remaining to give Nicholls a 22-14 lead after one quarter.

Nicholls hit 9 of 14 shots (64 percent) from the field in the first quarter.

The second quarter belonged to UIW as the Lady Colonels hit only 4 of 14 (21.4 percent) from the field in the next period. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were 6 of 11 (54.5) in rallying to within one point at the break.

Hamilton scored on a floating jump shot to open the second quarter to again give Nicholls a 10-point edge.

Hamilton later added a free throw before the Lady Colonels went cold.

UIW went on a 7-1 run and Nicholls went 1 of 9 from the field as the Cardinals rallied back.

De Leon Negron pulled up in the lane on a short jumper with three seconds left in the half to trail 29-28 at the break.

Nicholls has a chance to reach the .500 mark both in conference play and overall when it plays at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1 p.m. Saturday.