LAKE CHARLES – McNeese State appeared to have the upper hand in landing one of the top four spots in the Southland Conference Tournament after it led Nicholls 47-34 with just over 17 minutes to play, but a 13-0 run by the Lady Colonels in due part to a barrage of turnovers by the Cowgirls helped give Nicholls a 73-68 win here Saturday afternoon in a ESPN3 broadcast game.
 
The loss dropped McNeese to 16-12 overall but more importantly, 10-7 in league play with one game remaining. Nicholls (15-12, 11-5) locked up one of the two remaining bye spots in the tourney that gets underway on March 12.
 
"We lost our energy and fight," said head coach Brooks Williams. "We felt like it was either due to the foul situation or lack of execution but it's really disappointing."
 
McNeese led 39-32 at the half after Hannah Cupit hit back-to-back three-pointers in the last 48 seconds of the half to make it a 7-point game at the break. But it was the hot scoring of Amber Donnes who netted 15 points in the first half that helped give the Cowgirls the cushion.
 
"Our effort was really different in the second half from the first," said Williams. "We got a ton of offensive rebounds and putbacks in the first half that didn't happen in the second."
 
After the Cowgirls built their 13-point lead following an Allison Baggett 3, the Colonels six straight behind a couple of baskets from Marina Lilley. Talisa Boyd, who finished with 8 points and game-high 12 rebounds, put McNeese back up by 11 at 51-40 with 12:52 to play, and after a free throw by Keara Hudnell made it 52-44, Nicholls turned up the defense that helped it roll off 13 straight points and get up to a 57-52 lead with 7:42 to play.
 
Two Tia Charles free throws with 3:46 to play gave the Colonels their largest lead at 66-58. The Cowgirls battled back and cut the margin to 1 after a Jayln Johnson layup then two free throws following a Nicholls turnover to make it 67-66 with 1:46 to play.
 
Nicholls came back with a basket by Emani White followed by a Frederica Haywood jumper to keep it a 1-point game with 46 seconds to play. But Nicholls' Jenny Nash scored the final points of her game-high 23 to put the Colonels up 3 and Baggett's three-pointer to tie the game with 5.3 seconds to play was off the mark. Nicholls got the rebound and hit two final free throws to close out the game.
 
"We had a great opportunity to compete at our home and avenge the loss we took over there," said Williams.
 
Donnes finished the game with 17 points but had only 2 in the second half. Haywood recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Baggett finished with 11 points and Johnson 10.
 
The Cowgirls shot 35 percent from the field (23 of 66) and hit just 25 percent (7 of 28) in the second half, including a 2 of 11 mark in the half from long range.
 
Nicholls hit 43 percent (22 of 51) for the game and was 6 of 16 from long range. Nicholls connected on 23 of 32 from the free throw line and held a 45 to 33 advantage in rebounds.
 
The Cowgirls will now take the week off before returning to action next Saturday morning at 11 in the regular season finale at home against Central Arkansas.