After winning two straight conference games, the Lady Colonels looked to capture three straight but fell short, as the visiting Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks defeated Nicholls 71-58. Although the margin of defeat for Nicholls was 13 points, the Lady Colonels played the Lady Lumberjacks close throughout.
Nicholls trailed by only four points with less than three minutes remaining, before SFA pulled away down the stretch to take a double-digit victory.
Lady Colonel coach Louise “Do” Bonin said she was pleased with the way her team came out and played against the conference leading Ladyjacks, who are 19-3 overall and 14-0 in the SLC.
“We started the second round of competition and got wins over McNeese and UTA (University of Texas-Arlington), but these are games we felt we should win,” Bonin said about her team, which now sports a record of 6-14 on the year and 4-9 mark in Southland Conference action. When play began against SFA, it was the Lady Colonels who took the early lead, as a jumper by Katie Schreiter and a pair of free throws by Dana Kelley gave their team a 4-2 advantage.
Schreiter led the team in scoring with 25 points, while Kelley tallied 18. Two nights earlier against UTA, the same two players combined to score 38 points.
After going back and forth for several minutes, Schreiter tied the game at 12-12 with a three-pointer. After Schreiter’s basket, SFA went on a 13-4 run to take a 25-16 lead.
During its run, several Ladyjacks contributed. SFA’s Patrice Brown recorded the last four points to give her team a nine-point lead with 3:29 remaining in the half.
After Brown tallied UTA’s final two points, Nicholls went on a 11-2 run of its own to cut the Lady Lumberjack lead to four points at 31-27. During the run, Schreiter accounted for five Lady Colonel points, while Kelley, Tiffany Nearing and Heidi Broussard tallied the other six.
The Lady Colonels wasted no time in the second half, as they tallied the first nine points of the period to take a 36-31 lead with 16 minutes remaining in the contest.
SFA regained the lead nearly three minutes later, after a Nathesia Wright jumper gave her team a 40-38 advantage with 13:17 showing on the clock. From that point on, SFA maintained the lead, although the Lady Colonels did cut the deficit to as few as three points on three occasions.
Nicholls will return to action Thursday when they travel to take on Northwestern State. The Lady Colonels will conclude their road-trip on Saturday when they face the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Tip-off for Thursday’s contest is slated for 6:30 p.m., while Saturday’s contest is set to start at 5:30 p.m.
“I think the next step, whether it happens in the next month or next year is beating the better teams (top four),” Bonin said. “This road trip will be important because we will go in and play the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in conference.”
Nicholls 74 Texas-Arlington 68
With a recent win over McNeese State under their belts, Nicholls squared off against UTA Thursday night in Stopher Gym.
In the contest, the Lady Colonels posted a 74-68 win over the visiting Lady Mavericks.
After falling behind 12-7 in the opening stages of the game, the Lady Colonels rallied before eventually taking a 15-14 lead after Kelley converted on a free throw at the 10:30 mark.
Later the Lady Colonels expanded their lead to six points at 26-20, when Kelley hit a three-pointer with 6:08 remaining in the first half. The half ended with the Lady Colonels holding a 43-34 advantage.
In the second half, the Lady Colonels played similar to the first, as they maintained their lead en route to posting the six-point victory.
