LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women's basketball couldn't overcome a 15-point deficit to start the game here Wednesday night and struggled from the field in its 78-55 home finale against Nicholls.
 
"You can't get down 15 points to start the game against anybody let alone an experienced Nicholls team and that is what we did tonight," said head coach Kacie Cryer. "Nicholls showed they are a team fighting for a Southland Conference Tournament bye right now and they came out an put it on us right away."
 
Freshman Divine Tanks was the only McNeese player to reach double figures with 10 points on 5 of 11 from the field and also grabbed six rebounds. Bre'Ashlee Jones also grabbed six rebounds for the Cowgirls.
 
Nicholls placed four players in double figures with Cassidy Barrios leading all players with 27 points. Airi Hamilton scored 15, Tykeria Williams had 11, and Chrystal Ezechukwu ended the game with a double double (10 pts., 10 reb.).
 
The loss drops McNeese to 6-20 on the year and 4-11 in conference play while the win improves Nicholls to 17-10 overall and 11-4 in the SLC
 
Nicholls opened the game by scoring the first 15 points and the Cowgirls miss their first five attempts along with seven turnovers before Bre'Ashlee Jones ended the McNeese scoring drought with a free throw just over six minutes into the game.
 
"Nicholls showed they are a team fighting for a Southland Conference Tournament bye right now and they came out an put it on us right away."
 
McNeese clawed its way back into the game, cutting an 18-point deficit down to 10 points (33-23) at the half after outscoring the Colonels 13-9 in the quarter. McNeese ended the final five minutes on a 9-3 run.
 
"Once we settled in the game because we were throwing the ball away pretty easily, doing things we hadn't been doing lately, we settled down and was able to cut it to 10 points at the half," Cryer said.  
 
The Cowgirls picked up where they left off in the first half by opening the third quarter on a 7-4 run to cut the lead to seven points (37-30) behind five straight points from Regan Bolton.
 
Nicholls went on a run of its own and upped its lead back to 15 points (46-31) midway through the third quarter before taking its largest lead of the game 56-33 with 2:32 left in the stanza.
 
The Cowgirls did cut the lead under 20 points in the fourth quarter, getting as close as 17 twice but the Nicholls offense was just too much to overcome.
 
"Credit Nicholls, they did a great job and hit big shots when they were open. I can't question our kids' effort, they continue to battle and never give up. They are giving us everything they have and for that as a coach I'm very proud of them."