To the Colonels, we thank you!
December 5, 2018
Engines booming, people bonding
December 5, 2018
The Nicholls State University women’s basketball team started the 2018-19 season slow, losing 4-straight games.
But since then, things are heating up and the Colonels are showing the form that they exhibited when winning the Southland Conference Championship last spring.
Nicholls roared past their slow start with a winning streak, scoring an unblemished showing at the UTEP Thanksgiving Classic and then a pair of home-court victories over SUNO and Mississippi Valley State.
Coach DoBee Plaisance said the Colonels are starting to come around at the right time with Southland Conference play just a few weeks around the corner.
“I tell you all of the time, we have wins and we have lessons, we don’t lose around here,” Plaisance said after the win against SUNO, recalling a message she delivered to her team. “And I said, ‘Today we won, but there were a lot of lessons out there.’”
One of those big lessons that the Colonels are learning is one that they’ve seen play out over the past four-straight seasons: senior guard Cassidy Barrios is really stinkin’ good.
Barrios is fresh off a season where she won the Southland Conference Player of the Year Award, while helping the Colonels win their first-ever Southland Conference Title.
But so far in her senior season, Barrios has been even better, which will come to the amazement of the Nicholls fans, who have been watching her play over the past several seasons, wondering exactly what more she could do in the red and white.
Barrios opened the season scoring 20 or more points in five-straight games.
But the offense isn’t forced, it’s efficient. She shoots 48 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from behind the 3-point line.
If fouled, it’s almost automatic. Barrios is a 94.3 percent free-throw shooter — a huge weapon late in games.
And she’s also not just fishing for points. She does other things well throughout games.
Barrios also averages a double-double, owning 10.1 rebounds per game. She also leads the team in assists, steals and blocks — a sweep of every, single statistic for a player who will depart the program in the upcoming spring as arguably the greatest Colonel of all-time.
Against SUNO, she recorded Nicholls’ first-ever triple-double, posting 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the win, while shooting 8-of-11 from the field.
“Cassidy is the most humble all-star hero I think we’ll ever see. Even with that, it’s all about her team,” Plaisance said after the big game. “She’s going to play defense and she does things that are non-statistical — taking charges, making that extra pass — maybe one that won’t get that assist, but saving possessions and different things like that. After everything Cassidy did last year and the heights that the program achived the question is, ‘Well, what are you going to do next year?’ and, ‘How is Cassidy going to repeat?’ But with Cassidy, she’s going to figure out how to take it to another level.”
But the power of the Colonels’ mystique is that Barrios is not alone.
The Colonels return several players off last year’s team — a group of experienced players that have helped Nicholls rebound from its early-season funk.
In Nicholls’ win against UTEP, sophomore Kinzie Heineman was huge, sinking 3, 3-pointers to help complement Barrios’ 22-point showing in a 58-56 win.
A day later, the Colonels’ confidence grew even deeper when they beat Texas Southern 58-57 in a thriller.
Barrios struggled in that game for her lofty standards, scoring just 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting.
But Airi Hamilton (10 points), Bree Wilson (10 points), Bryanna Washington (8 points), Chrystal Ezechukwu (8 points) and Adrian Mann (6 points) helped the Colonels offset the difference and secure a hard-fought win.
In that game, Plaisance got a free cardiac test. The Colonels led by 5 with 35 seconds left after a Hamilton jump shot.
But Texas Southern didn’t quit, scoring to cut the lead to 58-55, then forcing a turnover and scoring again to make it 58-57 with 4 seconds to play.
After a timeout, the Colonels turned it over again, which sent Texas Southern off to the races. But Niya Mitchell missed a layup as time expired, which gave Nicholls a hard-fought win.
Once back home, there was no such drama.
The Colonels walloped SUNO 86-49 — a game in which all 11 of the Colonels who played, scored.
That should give the team further confidence. The lack of a road-heavy schedule helps, too.
The Colonels won’t always be in Stopher Gym in the next month, but they won’t leave Louisiana.
They played Tulane last night with no score available at press-time. Next week, they travel and face UL-Monroe, then LSU.
On Dec. 21, Nicholls hosts William Carey before taking a Christmas break.
Out of that, the Colonels open Southland play with two-straight home games, hosting Northwestern State and Incarnate Word before hitting finally leaving the state again on Jan. 9 at Stephen F. Austin.
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