Education Day crowd frenzy ignites Lady Colonel basketball team to win over SUNO

For the record, the final score was Nicholls 94, Southern University of New Orleans 52.

It’s not the final score that will long resonate with the Lady Colonels, but the deafening, non-stop roar of the crowd of 1,700-plus youth and middle-school students at the game at Stopher Gym on Friday morning.

“It was amazing. It was an energy we’ve never felt before here at Stopher, I think, personally. I think it’s an energy that can carry you through possessions. Hearing those kids scream is almost heartwarming. This is why we do it,” said Lexi Alexander.

“I’ve never seen this crowd this big,” said Kyla Hamilton. “To have the community here, it means a lot to us. The energy was amazing. We hope to get this crowd every time now.”

“We were just so excited to have this game,” Nicholls coach Justin Payne said. “It’s always great for the community, and our kids as well. It just gives us the energy to continue to play, to get to 3-0.

“This is what we talk about when we said, ‘REBOOT.’ It’s just the energy. You could tell the fans were involved. The kids believe. It starts with a belief.”

Among those in the crowd was Courtney Hadaway, a Pre-K teacher at St. Genevieve Catholic School in Thibodaux.

“Nicholls invited us to come see the game today and so our entire school came Pre-K through seventh grade and we’re just having a great time cheering, watching the Lady Colonels play. Our kids are super excited to be here today and cheer on Nicholls,” Hadaway said.

The morning game was part of Nicholls’ Education Game in which children from Lafourche Parish got an opportunity to experience a college basketball atmosphere and a pretty cool field trip.

Also for the record, the win improved Nicholls to 3-0 on the season. The Lady Colonels are now only two games away from equaling their win total of the entire 2022-23 season.

“It’s almost indescribable the feeling I am feeling right now compared to last year,” Alexander said. “It’s something I am so proud of. I’m ready to keep it going.”

Feeding off the emotion of the crowd, the Lady Colonels got off to a quick start and never let up in cruising to the win.

Nicholls scored the first four points of the game and built a lead of 13 points after one period at 22-9. A 3-pointer by Betzalys Delgado with 1:01 left gave the Lady Colonels their biggest lead at that point in the game.

SUNO didn’t reach double-figure scoring as a team until the 9:23 mark of the second quarter on a layup by Irina Layne. By that point, Nicholls had built a 23-11 lead.

A layup by Deonne Brister with five seconds remaining in the second quarter gave Nicholls its biggest lead of the game at 22 points for a 42-20 advantage at halftime.

Nicholls led 63-31 after three quarters as the Lady Colonels continued to build upon their lead.

The big lead allowed Payne to empty his bench and give reserve players an opportunity to get valuable court time. A total of 11 Lady Colonels saw action in the game.

“We felt like we could eventually get there to play everyone, and we wanted to make sure we were coaching them up the same way as if it’s a tie ball game. We wanted to see some things from that second unit,” said Payne.

The second unit, said Lady Colonel Britiya Curtis, brought an increased sense of energy to the game.

“I feel like the crowd made us pick up very much in the second half. The second group that came out in the second half, the intensity was way above the first group, which is good for us. It caused us to have that big and tremendous lead,” said Curtis.

Payne agreed with the assessment.

“There was actually from our second unit today, it was actually a bigger jump in energy from the first group, led by Ashley Malone, who was ready to play that second go-round in the second half,” Payne said.

Malone finished with a team-high 16 points in 19 minutes coming off the bench.

The 32-point lead for Nicholls after three quarters represented the Lady Colonels’ biggest advantage to that point in the game. A basket and free throw by Malone closed out the quarter for Nicholls.

A basket in the paint by Kate Manley gave Nicholls its biggest lead of the game at 47 points, 92-45, with 1:09 left in the game.

Along with Malone, Hamilton had 13 points for Nicholls and Curtis 11, while Alexander and Brister each chipped in 10 points. None of the double-figure scorers played more than 24 minutes.

Daelyn Craig had seven rebounds to pace Nicholls, while Delgado had five assists.

Jordan Harris and McKenna Harris did the bulk of the scoring for SUNO. Jordan Harris led all scorers with 23 points. McKenna Harris chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds.

The morning start, many Nicholls players agreed, had no real effect on the team.

“We like the 11 a.m. games. We practice a lot of times at this time during the day, so we were ready,” said Hamilton.

Still, with a game tipping off at 11 a.m. at home, did that mean some players had to go to class after playing a game?

Curtis had no such worries.

“No, no, no. My classes were this morning. I’m good. I am good.”