The Lady Colonels basketball team has played 12 of its first 15 games away from Thibodaux in the first half of the 2005-2006 season.Head coach Mark Cook and his squad have not had it easy, only winning one game and losing 15. The team has had a losing streak of four games and has a current streak of 10 straight losses.
The season started in Baton Rouge when the Lady Colonels played in the Southern University Tournament. In their first game they faced Grambling State University, where they lost to the Lady Tigers 61-54.
In the second game of the tournament, the women faced the home-standing Lady Jags of Southern, dropping that game 85-67.
From there, the team traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to participate in the Ohio State Buckeye Classic, where the Lady Colonels played nationally ranked Ohio State and Eastern Washington. The Buckeyes were not so kind to the Lady Colonels, scoring 94 points while only giving up 34 on their home court. Eastern Washington did not make the tournament any easier, defeating Nicholls 84-54.
The next four games had the women traveling to Tyler, Texas; Columbia, Mo.; Hot Springs, Ark.; and Oxford, Miss.
“I think it was hard on our freshman playing so many games on the road,” Cook said. “You want to give your team the feeling of being able to win at home because it’s so important going into conference.”
The Lady Colonels earned their first and only win of the season when they defeated UNO by a score of 55-51.
The next three games had the team losing to Missouri 88-34, Arkansas 75-40 and Mississippi 90-45.
In Nicholls’ first home game, the ULL Ragin’ Cajuns came to Thibodaux and left with a win by the score of 72-64.
“Being at home, you can see how competitive our girls can be,” Cook said. “We may not be ahead, but they play even harder in front of their own home crowd.”
The last two games before the squad started, Southland Conference play was the Cyclone Classic at Iowa State. The Lady Cyclones were first for the Lady Colonels and proved to be too much for the team winning 77-28. The second day was much like the first for Nicholls, losing to Appalachian State 76-54.
Cook said, “Our focus now has to be on getting to the conference tournament. Last year we lost seven games before we won our first, and we still made it to the conference playoffs. Getting to the playoffs is our main concern.”
Nicholls started the conference slate losing its first two games to Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State by respective scores of 80-59 and 77-67.
Losing to ULM 66-64 and Southeastern 47-42 started a four-game home conference stand for the Lady Colonels, with the remaining two games being against McNeese and Texas-Arlington.
The two games following that are on the road against Lamar and Southeastern.
Nicholls is back at home for three games to face Texas-San Antonio, Texas State and Stephen F. Austin, then traveling for the next three to face Northwestern State, ULM and Texas-Arlington.
