Nicholls women’s team comes up short in 52-49 home loss to Lamar

The biggest roar from the home crowd came at the buzzer when guard Kyla Hamilton connected on a desperation 3-point heave from almost the entire length of the court.

Unfortunately for the Lady Colonel fans, it was a matter of too little, too late.

The desperation shot made the final 52-49 in favor of Lamar on Saturday afternoon on Broussard Court at Stopher Gym.

Nicholls fell to 1-3 in the Southland Conference and 7-9 overall. Lamar improved to 4-0 in the SLC and 10-4 overall.

The Lady Colonels trailed by as many as eight points with only 11.5 seconds remaining in the game.

Lamar went to the free-throw line on its final three possessions. The Cardinals went 4 of 6 in that span. Hamilton hit a driving layup with 3.2 seconds left to make it a four-point game.

Akasha Davis hit two free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining before Hamilton’s long 3-pointer for the 52-49 final.

Hamilton led Nicholls in scoring with 14 points, while Lexi Alexander added 13. Deonna Brister paced the team in rebounds with seven.

Sabria Dean led four double-figure scorers for Lamar with 12 points. Akasha Davis added 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds, while R’Mani Taylor and Malay McQueen had 10 apiece.

Lamar stormed out to open the second half, outscoring Nicholls 8-2 to open the third quarter in extending its lead to nine points at 29-20 less than two minutes into the period.

“Like we did against New Orleans (in a 69-63 loss Thursday), we didn’t follow the game plan again. They are a younger team. They are learning each other. I talked to them in the first media time out, we wanted to make sure we went back to what we were doing in the first half. We got back to doing that and the game started shrinking. We just couldn’t put the ball in the hole enough to actually get the lead,” Nicholls coach Justin Payne said.

After Nicholls cut the lead down to four points, Lamar scored a pair of layups off of inbounds plays by N.J. Weems and McQueen to take a 37-29 lead at the 2:18 mark of the third quarter.

“Mental lapses,” said Payne. “We went over that in practice – the same play. We’ve just got to be locked in. We know it’s coming. They run that play a lot. Kudos to them. They executed.”

A post-up basket by Davis with 24 seconds left in the quarter allowed Lamar to rebuild its lead to nine points, heading into the fourth quarter with a 41-32 advantage.

Nicholls would get close but could never overcome its game-long deficit.

After a 3-pointer by Mikayla Etienne to cut the margin to four points in the fourth quarter, Lamar countered when Davis kicked the ball outside to Taylor, who knocked down a 3-pointer of her own.

Nicholls got the ball to Alexander on a fastbreak attempt, but the post player missed the basket, summing up the type it game it was for the Lady Colonels.

“It’s been like that a couple of games now. I feel bad for Lexi, the ball hasn’t really been going in, but she’s a great player. She’s going to find a way for the ball to come in. It’s a long season. I’m just keeping telling her to keep her head up and it will go in for her,” said Payne.

In a low-scoring opening period, Lamar’s four-point advantage of 12-8 after one quarter represented the largest lead of the quarter.

Dean’s jumper with 28 seconds left in the quarter allowed Lamar to take its four-point advantage.

The Colonels were only 2 of 13 (15.4 percent) from the field in the first quarter, while Lamar was 6 of 13 (46.2 percent), yet Nicholls managed to trail by only four points.

“It’s been about our defense all year when we can guard like this,” said Payne. “We talked about it. We had mental lapses against New Orleans. Tonight we had a few mental lapses. We had a few mental lapses in the third quarter. You hold a team like this to 52 points, you can’t be mad at that. We’ve just got to find a way to put the ball in the hole.”

Lamar built its lead up to six points before Nicholls rallied to take the lead.

A Traya Bruce 3-pointer at the 5:39 mark of the second quarter put Nicholls on top 15-14 and gave the Lady Colonels their first lead since a 5-4 edge in the first quarter following a Brister 3-pointer.

With the score tied 18-18, Lamar scored the final five points of the half on a 3-point basket by McQueen and a bucket off an offensive rebound by Davis to give the Lady Cardinals a 23-18 halftime lead.