HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana University women's basketball team will celebrate Alumni Day in conjunction with Saturday's 3 p.m. Southland Conference contest with Nicholls in the University Center.

The meeting between the Lady Lions (8-11, 2-4 Southland) and the visiting Colonels (3-15, 0-6 Southland) will be the first of two meetings in two weeks between the two teams. Southeastern will head to Thibodaux on Feb. 13. Saturday's game will be broadcast on the Internet only at www.LionSports.net.

Southeastern will welcome back approximately 40 former Lady Lions to be honored at halftime of Saturday's contest. In addition, former head coaches Frank Schneider and Ace Bryant will return to be part of the festivities. Southeastern's first head coach and a member of the Southeastern Hall of Fame, the late Linda Puckett will also be represented during the halftime ceremony. The group will include several members of the 1976-77 AIAW National Championship Team, as well as several former All-Americans and members of Southeastern's two recent Southland East Division championship teams.

“Once you are a Lady Lion, you are a member of the Southeastern family forever,” commented Southeastern head coach Lori Davis Jones, who donned the green and gold herself from 1987-91. “We're honored to have the opportunity to recognize our former coaches and players for their contributions to our program.”

This year's version of the Lady Lions will be looking to end a two-game losing skid. On Wednesday, Southeastern was unable to overcome a slow start in a 75-55 loss at Central Arkansas. Senior center Zevy Ivory narrowly missed a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds, while sophomore guard Kelli Jenkins added 15 points in defeat.

Southeastern is averaging 63.4 points per game heading into the game. Junior forward Rashima Jenkins, who was held scoreless for the first time in her Lady Lion career on Wednesday, leads the team with 9.4 points per game. Kelli Jenkins is next with 9.0 points per game and is averaging a team-high 14.0 points per contest in league contests. Senior guard Kim Edmonson (8.3 ppg), Ivory (7.4 ppg), junior guard Chelsea Hix (6.6 ppg) and freshman guard Erica Burgess (6.3 ppg) are the other top threats for Southeastern.

Kelli Jenkins has led Southeastern in assists in 15 of its 19 games. The Plaquemine native is averaging just over four helpers per contest. Burgess is second on the team with 2.5 assists per contest.
In Jenkins and Hix, Southeastern features two of the top three-point shooters in the Southland Conference and the Lady Lions are averaging 5.9 three-point field goals per game. Hix leads the team with 33 three-point field goals per contest and is fifth in school history with 100 three-point field goals in her career. Edmonson is right behind her with 32 treys and has netted 85 threes – eighth most in school history – in her season-plus with the Southeastern program.

The Lady Lions were out-rebounded, 40-36, on Wednesday, but still have a plus-3.2 rebounding margin for the season. Ivory leads the team with 6.4 rebounds per game and needs 45 boards to become the 14th player in program history to reach 500 rebounds. Rashima Jenkins (5.5 rpg) and junior center Rachel Mackie (4.1 rpg) are the other top rebounders for the Lady Lions.

Defensively, Southeastern is allowing 65.2 points, forcing 18.3 turnovers and averaging 7.0 steals and 2.4 blocked shots per game. Burgess (1.2 steals per game) and Kelli Jenkins (1.1 spg) leads the team in thefts, while Ivory and junior center Kasia Gawor share the team lead with just under a blocked shot per game. Ivory, a Shreveport native, is currently sixth in school history with 75 career blocked shots.

Nicholls will head into Hammond looking for its first league win and to snap a six-game losing skid. After trailing by 10 in the second half, the Colonels rallied but fell just short in a 54-52 home loss to McNeese State on Wednesday. Junior guard Ricshanda Bickham led Nicholls with 17 points, while sophomore forward Chelsea McNamee added 12 points.

Bickham, in her first season with Nicholls out of Connors College, is averaging a team-best 17.4 points per game. Freshman forward Alisha Allen is second on the team with 15.1 points per game. Bickham also leads the team with 3.2 assists per game and the Colonels are averaging 54.2 points per contest as a team.

On the year, Nicholls has been out-rebounded by an average of 4.4 boards per contest. Allen leads the team with 6.2 rebounds per game, followed by junior forward Cassie Hearon (5.2 rpg) and sophomore wing Jasmine Hoskins (4.7 rpg).

The Lady Colonels have held opponents to 68.7 points per game and are forcing 20.9 turnovers per contest. Bickham leads the Southland with 3.4 steals per game and Allen tops the team with 11 blocked shots on the season.

While Nicholls features seven newcomers on this season's roster, several Lady Lions will be facing off against very familiar faces. Southeastern's Gawor and junior guard Mary Fountain will be competing against former junior college teammates McNamee and Hearon. All four transferred to Division I from Northwest Florida State Junior College prior to this season.

Southeastern is 51-12 all-time versus Nicholls. The Lady Lions have won the last three meetings in the series and have not lost to the Colonels in Hammond since the 1998-99 season. Last season, Southeastern swept the season series. In the first meeting in Thibodaux, then-senior guard and current Lady Lion Director of Basketball Operations Charinee Mitchell scored 15 points in an 85-46 win. Then-senior forward Kristy Carlin scored 17 points to pace the Lady Lions to an 84-46 triumph in the Colonels return to Hammond.

Following Saturday's game, Southeastern will hit the road on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. contest at Texas State, which will be broadcast live in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9) and on the Internet at www.LionSports.net. The Lady Lions will be back at home next Saturday, hosting UTSA in the “Pink Zone” game dedicated to the fight against breast cancer at 3 p.m. in the University Center. The first 150 fans at that contest will receive a trading card featuring Edmonson courtesy of the Southeastern PRIDE (Positive Role-models Involved in the Development of Excellence).