Can Nicholls women make Stopher Gym a House of Payne in new coach’s debut?

Can the Nicholls women’s basketball team make Stopher Gym a house of Payne in their new coach’s debut?

The answer could come starting at 6 p.m. Monday night when the Lady Colonels and first-year coach Justin Payne take on North American University.

“We are all excited,” Payne said. “I’m excited about every season, from when I was an assistant, to a head coach in Georgia. We get excited for all of these. We just want to make sure we stay the course. Just as we are excited about the first game, we want to be excited about the second game that way.

“We want to show some consistency and greatness to make sure that we’re showing the same thing from game to game to game in terms of our energy and effort – the things that we can control.”

Expected to open at point guard for Payne, who inherited a team that was 5-24 a year ago and picked 10th in this season’s Southland Conference preseason poll is 5-foot-6 senior Kayla Hamilton.

Hamilton played three years at McNeese before transferring to Nicholls a year ago. In her first year at Nicholls a year ago, she averaged 10.7 points, amassed 122 assists, pulled down 15 rebounds, and had a team-high 59 steals.

At the other guard spot is Mikayla Etienne, a 5-foot-8 senior transfer from Mississippi Valley.

Expected to play in a combo guard-forward role is 5-foot-11 junior Deonna Brister.

At one of forward spots is 6-foot junior transfer Daelyn Craig. Craig played for Payne at Georgia Southwestern.

Expected to round out the starting lineup is 6-foot sophomore forward Lexi Alexander. She was named Freshman of the Year in the Southland Conference off her performance from a year ago when she ranked fourth in the conference in scoring at 13.8 per game, and third in rebounds with 8.4 per outing.

North American University from Stafford, Texas, a suburb of Houston, competes on the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics level.

The Stallions, who were 2-16 a year ago, are in their first season as associate members of the Red River Conference. NAU, picked to finish last in the 12-team league, is ineligible for the conference title, but the Stallions are eligible for individual league honors. The school competed as an NAIA independent within the Continental Athletic Association before joining the Red River Conference.

Among the teams in the RRAC are the likes of LSU-Shreveport, voted as preseason No. 1 in the league. Others competing in the league include Xavier of New Orleans, Louisiana Christian, and LSU-Alexandria.

NAU returns four players from last season, including Victoria Moore, Daphne Olivares, D’Marchay, and Lydia Sy.

“They are a tough, scrappy team,” Payne said of the Stallions. “They will play really, really hard. We need to make sure that our energy and effort is there. We want to make sure the energy can be felt that we are putting an exciting product on the floor.

“For us right now, not any of our opponents, it could be North American, Tulane, whoever, we are focused on ourselves. We want to make sure our style of play, the way we want to play, is the right way. No matter if we are playing Tulane, LSU or whoever, we want to make sure we are taking care of us.”