LAKE CHARLES— McNeese women's basketball dropped its home finale 72-53 to Nicholls here Wednesday in a game that saw the Colonels outscore the Cowgirls 44-23 in the second half with most of Nicholls points coming from the free throw line.
"I thought we played a really good game in the first half," said head coach
Kacie Cryer. "We came out in the third quarter and got the stops we needed and had open looks, but we didn't convert."
Nicholls ended the game making 25 of 29 from the free throw line for an 86.2 percent including 18 of 19 in the second half. Meanwhile McNeese ended the game making 5 of 9 and were outrebounded 48-27.
McNeese (5-23, 2-17 SLC) led 17-13 after the first quarter behind a 54.5 field goal shooting percent. Nicholls (13-16, 10-10 SLC) took a brief lead in the early minutes of the second quarter but a three-pointer by
Shaela Gardner and a layup by
Regan Bolton put the Cowgirls up 22-18 early in the period. McNeese led by as many as six points twice in the quarter, the last following a three-pointer by Bolton with 2:39 left. The Colonels scored the final six points and trailed 30-28 at the half.
Nicholls opened the second half on a 9-3 run to take a four point lead but two straight layups by
Bre'Ashlee Jones tied the game at 30 apiece with less than five minutes left in the third quarter but a layup by Nicholls Kacie Fountain gave the Colonels the lead and one they would not give up.
McNeese trailed 48-43 after the third quarter and were outscored 24-10 in the final period with half of Nicholls points coming from the free throw line in the quarter.
"We didn't do a good job of getting unanswered basket and going score those early in the quarter. The layups we missed not only in the third quarter but throughout the game hurt us as well."
Jones was the only Cowgirl to score in double figures, ending the game with 13 on 5 of 7 from the field and 3 of 5 from the free throw line.
Damilola Balogun, the Cowgirls leading scorer was held scoreless, but she led the team with eight rebounds.
Nicholls had four players score in double figures and was led in scoring by Chrystal Ezechukwu's 21 points.
McNeese will conclude its season with a 2 p.m. game at Lamar that will be streamed on ESPN3.
