Nicholls women in league tourney but seeding still up for grabs in finale at SLU

About the only thing for certain in the Nicholls women’s basketball team’s regular-season finale at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond on Thursday is that no matter the outcome, the Lady Colonels will be headed to the Southland Conference postseason tournament.

Beyond that, everything else is up in the air.

When Nicholls takes on SLU at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, it goes into the game as one of four Southland teams sporting 7-10 conference marks. Depending on the outcome, the Lady Colonels could garner anywhere from the No. 5 through No. 8 seed.

Jockeying for position also will be on the minds of the Lady Lions. Southeastern Louisiana goes into the game in a second-place tie with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi behind regular-season champion Lamar, which is 16-1. Incarnate Word sits a game behind SLU and Corpus Christi.

The second-place finisher will join Lamar with a double-bye straight into the semifinals of the tournament. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds receive a single-round bye.

The first game between Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana seems like a distant memory. SLU won the encounter 66-56 in the conference opener on January 4.

Although Nicholls lost by 10 points, the Lady Colonels, under first-year coach Justin Payne, showed they were going to be a competitive group in the SLC after winning a total of five games the previous season.

Nicholls rallied back from a halftime deficit to pull ahead of the league’s defending champions before fading in the fourth quarter.

Trailing by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter, Nicholls rallied to eventually take the lead.

A steal by Kyla Hamilton led to the guard’s pass to Lexi Alexander on a fast-break opportunity. Alexander missed her shot when she was fouled on the play but hit her two free throws to make it 38-30.

The Lady Lions turned the ball over on their next possession, setting up a 3-pointer by Mikayla Etienne. Hamilton came up with another steal, this one in the SLU backcourt, and knocked down a 3-pointer of her own, making the score 38-36.

Moments later, Hamilton hit two free throws to give the Lady Colonels a 41-40 lead at the 3:32 mark of the third quarter.

Nicholls increased its lead to as many as three points in the period before the game headed into the fourth quarter tied 47-47.

After rallying back in the third, the Lady Colonels couldn’t keep the momentum in the fourth quarter. Nicholls shot 6 of 10 from the field in the third quarter to get back in the game but was only 1 of 8 in the final quarter.

Southeastern Louisiana goes into Thursday’s game on a two-game losing streak. In their most recent encounter last Saturday, the Lady Lions fell to Corpus Christi 79-73 in overtime.

SLU has two double-figure scorers in Hailey Giaratano and Taylor Bell. Giaratano is averaging 11.2 points per game and Bell 10.3 for a team that is averaging 64.47 points per game. Bell leads the team in rebounding, averaging six boards per outing.

Southeastern is allowing only 58.82 points per game in SLC play.

Alexander paces Nicholls in scoring, averaging 14.2 points per game to rank sixth in the SLC. She is also ranked seventh in rebounding, averaging 7.1 per contest.

Donna Brister is sixth in the conference in field goal percentage, hitting at a 46.6 percent clip. Hamilton is 10th at 44.3.

Hamilton also is fourth in the league in 3-point percentage at 40.4 percent, and Britiya Curis is right behind in fifth place at 37.7 percent.

The Southland Conference tournament runs Sunday-Thursday in Lake Charles.