Break gives Nicholls women much-needed rest before heading to Texas A&M-Commerce

The Nicholls women’s basketball team is in the middle of a seven-day break before resuming Southland Conference action Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Texas A&M-Commerce.

“It’s much needed rest for us,” Nicholls coach Justin Payne said. “It comes at a good time. We wanted to go into that break with the ‘W.’ We fought really hard. I told them, ‘you leave it all out on the floor.’ So, they left it all out on the floor. I’m proud of our group.”

Nicholls didn’t come away with the win after falling at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last Saturday. The Lady Colonels led 43-38 heading into the fourth quarter but failed to score in the final 3:40 of the game in falling 58-52.

It was a contest in which each team committed 25 turnovers.

“We wanted to put some pressure on them, show them that we were here to play as well,” said Payne. “I thought we did a great job. We made some careless mistakes as well.”

“I’m really, really proud of their fight, though,” he continued. “The way they played, if you look at it, we outplayed them for 38 minutes. The last two minutes, we didn’t finish, but we’re going to continue to grow and continue to work on finishing. We’re right there. I feel like we’re really, really close. That’s a good ball club we played.

“To force them into 25 turnovers and to play that high level game, it felt like a tournament game. Our girls are getting great experience to hopefully come through in March.”

Closing out games, Payne said, has been a problem for his team.

“We’re gonna continue to work on it in practice and continue to put them in those situations until we learn to pass that test,” said Payne. “That’s the thing that’s kind of been biting us. We know with second chance points and points off turnovers and then finishing.

“That’s been our thing. They’re getting so much better each and every day. We’re playing really well, even though we’re making those mistakes. We’re starting to make some big-time shots. We’re still guarding the ball the way we want to guard it. We just got to finish.”

The loss to Corpus Christi dropped Nicholls to 2-4 in the SLC and 8-10 overall. The record, Payne said, is what you choose to make of it.

“The chemistry is getting better, and it’ll come. The confidence is coming and I’m really, really, pleased with where their growth is. We’re right where we want to be,” the Nicholls coach said. “If you look at it from fourth through eighth (in the conference standings), it’s just we’re one game back. Everybody else is knotted up at 3-3 and two games back out of the second-place spot.

“We’re just gonna continue to grind it out. We got 12 games left, one possession at a time.”

Some games, Nicholls has gotten much of its production from its inside game with Lexi Alexander. Other times, it’s been through outside shooting. Through the first half of the conference schedule, the two elements seemingly have not come together in the same game.

“Teams are doing a good job. You can see on Lexi, they triple-teaming her,” said Payne. “We talked to her about just trusting your teammates, maybe kick it out. Trust that we’re gonna make this open shot. We’re shooting it way better now.

“Hopefully, it starts to balance out a little bit. Teams are really keying in on her after the non-conference season that she’s had, and her season last year as expected. We’ve been getting inside and having a lot of success one-on-one. They’re doing their best not to let it be ever one-on-one. We just have to get better within those little nuances in the game.”

Texas A&M-Commerce, which is second in the conference in scoring at 65.11 points per outing, enters the week 3-3 in the SLC and 8-8 overall. The Lions take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday before facing Nicholls.

“Commerce is one of the best offensive teams in our league,” Payne said. “They can score it a ton.

“We will have to again bring our a ’A’ game defensively, which we have been doing. I look forward to that challenge. Our group is going to look forward to that challenge of stopping them, and then see if we can create us some easy opportunities on our transition offense.”

Four players carry the load in scoring and also in minutes played for the Lions.

“All four of them can flat out score,” said Payne. “We will have to go out on the island, as we say, and do a great job of one-on-one. We have to have our hands up, but I love the way we are guarding as a team. We are hitting the boards. You can tell we are making steps in the right direction.”

Mia Deck leads the Lions in scoring and rebounding, averaging 17.3 points in conference play and 6.8 boards per outing.

“She started out actually at New Orleans, so I know a little bit about her,” Payne said of Deck. “She’s a great scorer. If she sees the basket, it’s going in. We have to make sure we’ve got high hands at all times. She’s a three-level score at the rim, pull up jumper and can shoot the three some.”

Along with Deck, Ahmya Boyce is averaging 15.2 points per game, Mary Delgado 12.3, and Jordyn Newsome 10.5. Olivia Russell is right behind Deck in rebounding, averaging 6.7 rebounds per game.

“Commerce is going to spread you out,” Payne noted. “They are playing within those four guys. Those guys can score it. They can play fast.”

The Lions’ strategy on defense, Payne said, will be a wait-and-see matter.

“Defensively, it’s gonna be the same thing that we’ve been seeing with the little things in the game,” said Payne. “Are they gonna go one-on-one with Lexi? We don’t know. It’s just different things that people will throw at us. Corpus threw a trapping zone at us that kind of messed us up late. It’s just little things that coaches are trying to do, make adjustments to see if we’re going to turn it over or not, but we’ll be prepared.

“We got our work cut out for us, but again, we’re excited about the opportunity to go down there and play another conference game and do what we do best and that’s defend.”