Second half energy sparks Nicholls women’s basketball team to win in Payne’s debut

With his team leading North American University, a NAIA school, only 34-33 at halftime, first-year Nicholls women’s coach Justin Payne delivered a message to his Lady Colonels.

“We got on them. We talk about we’ve got to follow the game plan. We went in there and had some good words for them at halftime and got on them a good bit and just let them know, ‘hey, we have a great crowd here. It’s about a first impression. We want to make sure that people see that this is a reboot. We’re ready to play. We will play a great style of basketball. We will put a great product on the floor, and we wanted to show that in the second half,” Payne said.

Stepping up on the defensive end and playing with an increased energy from the first half, Nicholls blew past the Lady Stallions in an 82-65 triumph that gave Payne and his squad a win in the season opener on Monday night at Stopher Gym.

“It’s just special. I can’t thank God enough. These kids are battling. Obviously, we are continuing to build on something special. We are seeing a lot of fight from them. That’s what we like to see,” said Payne.

Nicholls (1-0) had five double-figure scorers.

Leading the way was Lexi Alexander, who had a double-double in her first outing with a team-high 19 points and 11 rebounds.

“It felt really good playing together as a team under a new coaching staff. Under a new brand, it felt really good playing together and we loved the energy,” said Alexander said.

The message from the coach was something the players had already realized on their own, according to Alexander.

“Honestly, it’s player led. We knew we needed to pick it up. The score needed to be real better. If we didn’t hype each other up, no one else was going to do it for us.”

Deonna Brister has 13 points for Nicholls while Daelyn Craig tossed in 12, Britiya Curtis 11, and Ashley Malone 10. Curtis and Betzalys Delgado each had five assists for Nicholls.

Whatever Payne said at halftime, Craig had heard it all before. She followed Payne to Thibodaux after playing for him at Georgia Southwestern.

“We all just know we need to pick up the energy. That’s how we practice. We play like that. It’s really energy and effort. That’s all he preaches,” Craig said. “After the half, we just picked up the energy and just had to be better on defense and make shots.”

The Lady Colonels scored the first 10 points of the second half and never looked back. Six of the points came in the paint from Alexander. Craig and Brister added the other two baskets as Nicholls built a 44-33 lead by the 6:12 mark of the third quarter.

Nicholls maintained its 11-point margin, leading 61-50 going into the fourth quarter.

The biggest lead of the game for Nicholls was 24 points at 76-layup72 with 5:14 left in the game on a layup by Malone.

NAU could get no closer than 14 points down the stretch on the Lady Colonels’ way to 82-65 win.

After shooting 36 percent in the first quarter and 29 percent in the second, Nicholls improved to 52 percent in the third quarter and 50 percent in fourth, getting may of its points from in the paint.

The Lady Stallions (0-2) had four double-figure scorers. Keiarra Rivers led the way with 22 points, while Victoria Moore chipped in 14, Desiree Rogers 12, and Elisa Peralta 10.

After a slow shooting start for both teams, NAU scored the first basket of the season on a 3-pointer by Moore at the 8:38 mark of the first quarter.

The initial basket by NAU seemed to ignite the Lady Colonels, who went on to score the next 13 points, keyed by six points by Alexander.

After Nicholls took a 15-9, the Lady Stallions went on a 12-10 run to lead 21-15. Pacing NAU was five points by Rivers on a jumper, layup, and free throw.

After the early scoring spree, nothing seemed to be falling for the Lady Colonels.

“We want to see that early on. How do we react? Is it going to be like the team from last year that faltered and not win this game. But I think we fought back and showed we could continue to keep and lead and just continues to work on winning plays. Each possession, winning, winning. That’s how we’ve been treating practice, winning each drill and each possession,” said Payne.

The players were confident the shots would eventually fall.

“We just need to get in the gym more, practice more, keep up our shooting workouts. We’re not too worried about it. We will knock down shots in the future,” Alexander said.

“It’s probably just people being a bit nervous. We need to get back in the gym more, but our shots will fall,” said Craig.

Six points to close the quarter allowed Nicholls to lead 23-21 after one period of play.

Nicholls led 34-33 at halftime.