THIBODAUX—Coming off its best shooting night of the season, McNeese women's basketball struggled from the field here Wednesday night in its 79-63 Southland Conference loss to Nicholls.
 
McNeese (5-14, 2-8 SLC) shot 33.3 percent from the field on 21 of 63 attempts including 4 of 18 from three-point range for 22.2 percent.
 
Despite the poor shooting, McNeese only trailed by seven points 34-27 at the half.
 
"Credit Nicholls, they were the tougher team from the opening tip tonight," said head coach Kacie Cryer. "We did a good job in the first half of staying close even with us not shooting the ball well and only to be down by seven points."
 
Seniors Sky Jasper, Damilola Balogun, and Regan Bolton all ended the game in double figure scoring. Jasper led the Cowgirls with a career high 21 points. Balogun picked up another double double with a career high 20 points and 12 rebounds. The double double is her seventh in the last eight games. Bolton, who got off to a slow start ended the game with 10 points including two of the four Cowgirl three-pointers.
 
"Sky and Dami did a great job of stepping up and knocking down big shots when we needed them. We just never got in a consistent rhythm on the offensive end and we didn't do a good job of boxing out in the second half," Cryer said.
 
Nicholls (6-14, 3-8 SLC) was led by Chrystal Ezechukwu's game high 35 points. Ezechukwu ended the game making 14 of her 22 shots from the floor and was 7 of 8 from the free throw line. Tykeria Williams added 11 points and Loan-Anh Johnson pitched in with 10 points.
 
The Colonels began the third quarter on a 13-3 run to hold a 47-30 lead midway through the third quarter and the Cowgirls got as close as 11 points with 1:22 left but Nicholls ended the game by outscoring McNeese 6-2 in the final minute.
 
McNeese will return home Saturday to host Lamar in the Battle of the Border. The Cowgirls will tip things off at 1 p.m. in the first game of the doubleheader.