Nicholls women headed to second round of SLC tourney after 73-66 win over UNO

The team picked to finish last in the league is on its way to the second round of the Southland Conference women’s basketball tournament.

Nicholls, the No. 7 seed, earned its way into the second round of the tournament being held in Lake Charles with a 73-66 win over the University of New Orleans. Nicholls will take on No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

It’s a big turnaround for first-year coach Justin Payne and his Lady Colonels. It was a big turnaround in the second half that helped Nicholls win its first conference tournament win in three years.

With Nicholls trailing by three points at halftime, Deonna Brister and Lexi Alexander took over in the second half.

Held scoreless in the first half, Brister scored 10 points in the third quarter, mostly coming in the early portion of the quarter as Nicholls turned a halftime deficit into a lead it would not relinquish. Brister finished with 12 points in the game.

Alexander, who was limited to two points in the first half, scored six of her 13 points in the game in the third quarter. She finished with a double-double by pulling down 10 rebounds.

Another turnaround was the defensive effort by the Lady Colonels on high-scoring Dearica Pryor. Prior, scored 13 of her 19 points in the first half. She was held to two points in the second half until the final two minutes of the game.

One person who didn’t need a turnaround was Kyla Hamilton. The senior point guard who played prep basketball at nearby Sam Houston High School, was sharp from the start. Finishing with 18 points, she had eight points at halftime. For the game, she dished out seven assists and had five rebounds.

Mikayla Etienne kept Nicholls in the game in the first half, scoring 13 in the first 20 minutes.

To open the second half, Brister scored nine points in less than four minutes of the third quarter.

Brister reached nine points after scoring in the lane and being fouled. She hit her free throw, turning what had been a 31-28 halftime deficit into a 39-37 lead for Nicholls by the 6:17 mark of the third quarter.

Along with getting Brister going, Nicholls started getting the ball inside to Alexander as the Lady Colonels built their lead.

On the defensive end, an aggressive zone defense by Nicholls held Pryor to two in the third quarter.

With the Lady Colonels keeping Pryor silent, UNO turned to Nora Francois, who finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, but was the Privateers’ lone threat in the second half.

The biggest lead in the third quarter was eight points. The first time was at 39-47 on a basket by Alexander off an assist by Hamilton at the 3:47 mark of the quarter on Nicholls’ way to a 53-48 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Hamilton scored on a pair of layups off of UNO turnovers to open the fourth quarter to give the Lady Colonels their biggest lead of the game at nine points, 57-48.

The closest UNO would get the remainder of the game four points on at 60-56 when Francois scored five-straight points on a 3-pointer and a layup.

The game got off to a quick pace in the first quarter before both teams cooled in the final minutes of the period.

Each team enjoyed leads of as many as four points. Nicholls scored the first four points of the game on fastbreak baskets by Hamilton and Britiya Curtis off of turnovers.

UNO’s four-point lead came at 11-7 on a 3-pointer by Francois at the 4:14 mark of the first quarter.

After a 3-pointer by Etienne gave Nicholls a 12-11 lead at the 3:40 mark, neither team scored again until there was 54 seconds remaining in the period on an Etienne jumper.

Trailing 14-11, Pryor scored the final four points of the quarter on jumper and two free throws to give the Privateers a 15-14 lead after one quarter of play.

The cold shooting for both teams to close the opening period continued in the second quarter.

Through the first four minutes of the second quarter, each team scored two points.

A 3-pointer by Etienne at the 1:59 mark allowed Nicholls to tie the game 26-26.

After hitting her 3-pointer, Etienne made a taunting gesture toward a UNO defender. Etienne was called for a technical foul, which was her second personal foul of the game. Pryor hit the two technical foul shots, giving the Privateers a 28-26 lead.

A 3-pointer by Prior gave UNO a 31-27 lead with the four-point advantage equaling the biggest led of the game for either team.

Curtis hit a free throw with 15 seconds remaining to make it a 31-28 score at halftime.

The ill-advised technical foul aside, Etienne kept Nicholls in the game in the first half. She scored 13 points in 11 minutes, including hitting 3 of 6 from 3-point range. Etienne was 5 of 9 from the field.

Other than Etienne, the rest of the Lady Colonels were 6 of 25 from the field and 1 of 12 from 3-point range in the first half.

Pryor equaled Etienne’s performance with 13 points in the first half for UNO.