Nicholls women have little time to savor season-opening win as busy first week continues

The Nicholls women’s basketball team had little time to savor an 82-65 win at home over North American University on Monday in the debut of new coach Justin Payne.

Nicholls goes on the road for the first time during the 2023-24 season when the Lady Colonels take on Tulane at 6 p.m. Wednesday in New Orleans. It will be the second of four games Nicholls will play over an eight-day span.

Five players reached double-figure scoring in the victory over NAU.

Leading the way was Lexi Alexander, who posted a double-double in the season opener with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

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.

Nicholls (1-0) held a mere 34-33 halftime lead before picking up the intensity in the second half.

“I’m pleased with our group,” Payne said. “We just need to make sure we stay a bit more disciplined on defense and do what we need to do on the defensive end. Everything that we practice, we want to see it out there.

“We have to make sure we are doing the little things. Boxing out and actually going to get the rebound. We had a few possessions where I felt like we boxed out, but we didn’t go attack that rebound. We need to do so. With Tulane, we might not be as fortunate.”

Tulane (1-0) is coming off a 68-57 win Monday over Stetson.

Kyren Whittington led the Green Wave with 16 points. Marta Galic scored 12 points, Hannah Pratt 11 and Inina Parau 10.

Under Lisa Stockton, who has been at Tulane for 30 years, the Green Wave went 18-14 a year ago.

Tulane lost its top scorer from a year ago in Dynah Jones, who averaged 12.6 points per game.

Whittington and Galic are the top returning scorers after both averaged 11.9 points per outing. Galic is the team’s leading returning rebounder, pulling down 6.7 per game during the 2022-23 season.

Whittington and Galic are the two players Nicholls will need to focus on Wednesday, according to Payne.

“Kyren is just a playmaker,” the Nicholls coach said. “She’s really, really good with the basketball. She can score at all three levels. Also, is prowess on the defensive end playing the passing lanes. We really don’t want her to get out in transition and getting to these passing lanes turnover after turnover of the basketball.

“We need to stop those two, Marta as well. She’s very, very solid. She’s an excellent 3-point shooter. We need to make sure we find her in transition. We have to hold those two in check.”

Nicholls will be back at home on Friday against Southern University of New Orleans. SUNO, like North American, is a NAIA school.

The game will be played at 11 a.m. and is the Education Game for Nicholls.

Payne was part of the Education Game while an assistant at Nicholls and brought the concept to Georgia Southwestern as head coach.

“We want to make sure we are getting these kids in the community to our facility on campus. Some of our kids have never been on campus. It’s just a great environment to have them be on campus, and just provide a great atmosphere for our kids and for them, as well,” said Payne.

A total of 1,700 children up through middle school age are signed up to attend the game, according to Payne.

“It’s at 11 a.m. so that the kids can have almost like a field trip day and come and watch a game and be on campus and just enjoy it,” he said.

Three days later, Nicholls will play at SMU in Dallas on next Monday.

SMU (1-0) is also coming off a season-opening win. The Mustangs defeated UC-Riverside 78-55 on Monday.

The Mustangs were 17-13 a year ago.

Chante Embry is the team’s top returning scorer and rebounder. Last season she averaged 11.6 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per outing.

Reagan Bradley, who averaged 8.7 points a year ago, is the second-leading returning scorer for SMU.

The overly event-filled eight days, Payne said, was not by design.

“When I got the job, we kind of had to make some changes in scheduling,” Payne explained. “With scheduling, sometimes you have to work with what you have. Those are the dates that Tulane had, so it was the only date we could slide in. The SUNO game, it was the only time we could actually do the Education Day game.

“It just actually fit perfect within this week. With the first game against North American, I really wanted to play on opening day at home.”