Colonels women struggle at SLC’s

The Northwestern State University women’s basketball team made shots on Friday afternoon at the Southland Conference Tournament.

Nicholls didn’t.

As one can probably easily predict from that intro, the Lady Demons moved on to the next round, and eventually won the entire tournament. The Colonels went home and were left to wonder what might have happened if the game were played on any other day.

The Demons were absolutely on fire on Friday in the quarterfinals of the SLC Tournament in Katy Texas, shooting 30-of-51 from the field against a Colonels team that couldn’t buy a bucket on the other end.

The final result was a game that Northwestern led and controlled from start-to-finish in an 84-67 win. The loss ends Nicholls’ regular season with a 17-13 record.

Colonels coach DoBee Plaisance said she tips her hat to the Lady Demons, who rarely missed on Friday afternoon – a nightmare situation for any team to face in a single elimination tournament.

“Hats off to Northwestern State,” Plaisance said. “They came out with a one-two punch. We were a little slow getting the ball rolling. I’m so proud of the women. We did fight back and make some strides toward the end…. We could have folded, but we didn’t.”

The Colonels never quit, but their opponent was absolutely relentless on Friday afternoon.

Northwestern State came out of the gates hot, scoring 15 points in the first four minutes of action to take an early 15-8 lead with 15:55 to play in the opening half.

The Colonels fought back and made the next run, using a 10-4 spurt to cut the Lady Demons’ lead

to 19-18 midway through the half. Nicholls pushed the game to 25-all and 27-all ties in the first half.

But throughout the entire game, it felt like that anytime the Colonels got a little bit of momentum, the Demons snatched it right back in a big way by making shots while the Colonels missed.

The Demons finished the half on an 11-4 run to take a 38-31 halftime lead – an advantage that was sparked by 16-of-27 shooting (59 percent) from the field.

Across the floor, Nicholls shot ll-of-36 (30 percent), led by 11 opening-half points from senior guard Jenny Nash, who finished with 18.

Northwestern said the execution was a God sent against a Colonels team they called a “very good team.”

For the Colonels, it was missed layups that drained the team’s flow.

“We knew we had to come out and execute and we were able to get some really good looks,” Lady Demons junior guard Janelle Perez said. “We hit some pretty good shots.”

“Not finishing around the basket disrupted our flow and our execution,” Plaisance added. “Offensively, it threw our focus off kilter.”

In the second half, Nicholls got the first bucket, cutting the lead to 38-33 with 18:39 to play. But the Lady Demons rolled from there, stretching the lead to as many as 19 points and never letting go. The Colonels never got back to single digits.

Perez led the Lady Demons with 24 points. Chelsea Rogers, Keisha Lee and Beatrice Attura all had double figures.

For the Colonels, Nash’s 18 was followed by 10 from Marina Lilly.

“They came out really strong and hot, but I don’t think it phased us that much,” Nash said. “We just had to do what we could do and unfortunately, we didn’t do that and that stopped our momentum.”

The loss is the end of Nash’s storied career in Thibodaux – one that saw the Houston native score more than 1,000 career points and contribute for four-straight teams. Friday’s loss also marked the final games in the careers of senior posts Shay Arnick, Syleida Ellis and JonMarie Guillory.

Redshirt senior guard LiAnn McCarthy is attempting to continue her career after suffering another leg injury before the start of the season.

But for all Nicholls is losing, the team will return a lot of talented players, as well – something that has many expecting the future to be bright.

Junior guard Emani White will return and hope to be injury-free after battling pain throughout the entire season.

Freshman Tia Charles will also join returnees like Elexus Allen, Hope Pawlowski, Ekiya Gray, Taylor Morrison and Marina Lilly among the team’s top returning players.

Plaisance said after Friday’s loss that she’s disappointed that her quest to reach the NCAA Tournament at Nicholls hasn’t yet happened, but added that she believes in all of the returnees coming back to Thibodaux.

Next time around, the team just needs to make a couple shots on the big stage. It wouldn’t hurt if the Colonels’ opponent missed a few, either.

Both those things didn’t seem to happen on Friday.

And it ended Nicholls’ successful season.