Ladies Night Out raising cancer funds
March 11, 2014
Gators baseball enjoys success
March 19, 2014
The final game of KK Babin’s high school career ended in a thrill with the senior guard burying a buzzer-beating shot to win the Louisiana State Championship.
Her final game at the collegiate level ended on the opposite side of the spectrum – in heartbreak that her final crack at a conference championship had passed by without cutting down the nets.
The Colonels fell in the quarterfinals of the Southland Conference Tournament this past week, falling to Northwestern State in a thriller.
Nicholls trailed the Lady Demons for most of the game, but stormed back late to take an improbable two-point lead with 1:49 to play.
But on the brink of elimination, Northwestern closed the game on a 6-0 run to cap a 69-65 win.
The loss ends Nicholls’ season with a 17-14 record. It marks the final game in the storied career of two-time All-Southland Conference guard KK Babin, who scored 13 points in her final collegiate game.
“We have persevered a lot this year, and we persevered today,” Colonels’ coach DoBee Plaisance said. “The outcome wasn’t what we expected; however, it isn’t about the destination, it’s more about the journey and I’d take a journey with these women any day.”
It looked for a while like the Colonels would bow out of the tournament without much of a whimper.
Northwestern and Nicholls played a close first half with the Lady Demons taking a 32-29 lead into halftime.
That advantage ballooned into double digits in the second half, as Northwestern opened the second half on a torrid scoring pace to take a 44-31 lead with 15:31 to play.
The Lady Demons maintained a sizeable advantage throughout most of the second half, taking a 55-46 lead into the seven-minute media timeout.
But out of that break, the Colonels pushed forward and nearly stole the game.
Nicholls went on a 19-8 run over a six-minute stretch to take a 65-63 lead with 1:49 to play. That scoring barrage was capped by a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Emani White, who led Nicholls in scoring with 18 points.
But the Colonels didn’t have any energy left in their tank to finish the game with a win, enabling the Lady Demons to pull back ahead for good.
The final four possessions for Nicholls all ended without points. The Colonels’ best shot to steal victory came with 11 seconds to play when White’s 3-point heave sailed off the mark.
From there, Northwestern State sunk game-clinching free throws to put the game on ice.
Nicholls was just 4-of-24 from behind the 3-point line in the loss.
That cold shooting was a total 180 from the 14-of-28 clip Nicholls shot from deep in the team’s opening-round 77-66 win against Oral Roberts.
White had 24 points and seven assists in that game, including five 3’s. She’d have loved to duplicate that performance against the Lady Demons, a game that saw her shoot just 1-of-5 from the arc.
“We just tried to stay positive and never give up,” White said. “We came back from a big deficit, and we just couldn’t close it out.”
Even in defeat, the future looks bright for Nicholls, who loses just Babin from their roster. The team also will benefit from the return of senior guard LiAnn McCarthy, who missed the entire 2013-14 season with a knee injury.
But Babin’s departure will mark the beginning of a new chapter in Colonels’ women’s basketball history.
A Gonzales native, Babin was a four-year starter for the Colonels, and has helped guide the program’s transformation from cellar dweller to contender into fruition.
Minutes after leaving the floor as a Colonel for the final time, Babin opened up on her career, adding that she is grateful for being a Colonel.
“To start off where we were my freshman year and all the struggles we went through – we were pretty much nothing when we first got here,” Babin said. “Coach kind of convinced me, ‘Hey, we can do this. We can turn this around.’ I believed her and I have all my trust in her and the coaching staff here. A few others signed in, and we became a core group, and we just worked to keep pushing and that’s where we are today.
“As you can see, we’re pretty competitive these days. I’m happy with where we are now.”
Plaisance agreed, adding that the Colonels will be back in 2014-15 to take another stab at the Southland Conference Tournament. They will do so as one of the preseason favorites in the league.
She added that the effort the team showed in Katy this year will go a long way in helping the team next season.
“We didn’t give up; we battled and again, we were a couple plays short one way or another,” Plaisance said. “I’m very proud I’ve been able to go on this journey with these women. It was a tough game, and it just didn’t quite fall our way tonight.”
Nicholls women’s basketball player Jasmine Scott makes a move to the basket through traffic during a game this season. The Colonels’ bid to win the Southland Conference Tournament Championship ended last Friday when Nicholls fell to Northwestern State – the eventual champion. The Colonels rallied from a double-digit deficit and took a late lead.
