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March 17, 2016The dream will have to wait another year for the Nicholls State University women’s basketball team.
The Colonels reached the Southland Tournament – again with aspirations of winning it and punching a ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
But it again wasn’t meant to be for the Colonels, who fell 73-64 to Sam Houston on Thursday – a game that served as revenge for Nicholls’ victory over the Lady Bearkats on Jan. 19.
The loss ends Nicholls’ season with a 10-19 record.
Colonels coach DoBee Plaisance said she’s happy with her team’s effort, but disappointed with the result.
“We played hard enough to win,” Plaisance said. “We just came up short. (Sam Houston coach) Brenda (Welch-Nichols) had her kids in a great place. They did what they were supposed to do, especially early on, and they sustained it. We came back at them with a vengeance and credit to them – especially during tournament time. That’s what it’s all about.”
It was a slow start that doomed the Colonels on Thursday afternoon.
Sam Houston came out of the gates on a mission, doubling up Nicholls in the first quarter to storm out to a 20-10 lead.
The Lady Bearkats opened the game on a 15-4 run, led by First-Team All-Southland standout Shernice Robertson, who scored nine of her 20 points in the opening quarter.
Welch-Nichols said the early surge was not a surprise, because of how motivated Sam Houston was to avenge their early-season loss to Nicholls.
The Colonels beat the Lady Bearkats 67-63 at Huntsville in the early stages of Southland play.
“I think our girls were fired up and they got on a high,” Welch-Nichols said. “They didn’t see a bad shot tonight. I think, as a former player, when you get into that zone, you’re going to keep shooting because you know there’s nothing stopping you. … We never stopped believing we were ever losing that ball game, and I think that was the difference.”
The Lady Bearkats extended their first-quarter lead to 15 by halftime, taking a 36-21 advantage into the lockers.
The Colonels didn’t give up.
They cut Sam Houston’s lead to 13 after the third quarter, then used a big-time surge to threaten victory.
The Colonels cut the lead to 63-58 with three minutes in the game. But the Lady Bearkats came back down the floor and Robertson drilled a 3-ball to take back control for her team.
Sam Houston then made several foul shots down the stretch to put it away for good.
“All year long, (our team) has been saying that when the game is crucial, and we need that big bucket, that I need to step into that leadership role and put the ball in the hoop,” Robertson said. “That’s what I did. It was a big shot. But it’s a shot that I expect to make and take.”
Sophomore guard Tia Charles finished with a team-high 17 points for the Colonels, who also got 11 points from Taylor Morrison.
But the Colonels were not able to get their often-potent 3-point shooters rolling, shooting just 5-of-20 from behind the line.
“The shots just weren’t falling at all,” senior guard LiAnn McCarthy said. “We were trying our best to get open shots and coach was putting us in position to make open shots and they just weren’t falling.”
The loss ends the careers of McCarthy and post player Jovana Mandic – the two-person senior class that helped lead Nicholls throughout the year.
McCarthy’s loss is especially meaningful, because she’s been with the program for six seasons – after losing two-straight seasons to knee injuries.
Plaisance said before the season that McCarthy was invaluable to the Colonels program.
She’s been with the team since the beginning of its turnaround under Plaisance, playing her true freshman season in 2010-11, then making seven 3-pointers in a Southland Tournament game as a sophomore to help lead Nicholls past Central Arkansas – the school’s first-ever conference tournament victory.
“She’s been here and has been a huge part of everything that we’ve been trying to build,” Plaisance said. “LiAnn is tough, and she loves to be a part of this team. She’s a huge part of Nicholls basketball.”
But while McCarthy and Mandic exit the program, the Colonels have plenty other players capable of shining.
Nicholls returns Morrison, junior Hope Pawlowski and freshman sensation and Vandebilt guard Cassidy Barrios, who averaged 10.4 points per game this past season. •
