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2011-12 Southeatern WBB Seniors
Randy Bergeron / Southeastern Louisiana University

Women's Basketball

Southeastern Hosts Nicholls for Senior Day

Lady Lions look to secure SLC Tournament berth on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Southeastern celebrates Senior Day prior to Saturday's 12 p.m. game with Nicholls
Game Notes

HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana women's basketball team will close out its 2011-12 regular season on Saturday, hosting Southland Conference foe Nicholls State at 12 p.m. in the University Center.
 
The game between the Lady Lions (11-17, 6-9 Southland) and the visiting Lady Colonels (14-14, 7-8 Southland) will be broadcast live in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9) and on the Internet at www.LionSports.net. Southeastern will honor seniors Amber Crenshaw, Latoria Holder, Kelli Jenkins and Jessica Sommers prior to the game in a Senior Day ceremony.
 
With a win over Nicholls, Southeastern will secure the No. 7 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament, which tips off Tuesday in Katy, Texas. Should Southeastern lose, the Lady Lions could still secure the final spot in the eight-team league tournament field with a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi loss at regular season champion Central Arkansas on Saturday at 2 p.m. A Southeastern loss combined with a TAMU-CC win would end Southeastern's season.
 
Crenshaw will be Saturday's Spotlight Player of the Game. The first 100 fans will receive a trading card featuring the Memphis, Tenn. native courtesy of the Southeastern PRIDE.
 
 The Lady Lions missed an opportunity to clinch a postseason berth on Wednesday, when they fell to McNeese State, 68-53, in Lake Charles. Jenkins and junior forward Brandi Simmons led Southeastern with 13 points apiece, but could not offset the game-high 26 points by MSU junior guard Ashlyn Baggett.
 
Southeastern is averaging 63.2 points per game, as sophomore forward Aja Gibson (11.5 ppg), Jenkins (11.1 ppg) and Simmons (9.0 ppg) lead the way. Simmons (47.4, 6th), Holder (46.9, 7th) and Gibson (45.5, 10th) all rank among the league leaders in field goal percentage, while Jenkins is 26 points shy of becoming the 17th student-athlete in school history to reach 1,000 career points.
 
Holder (7.8 ppg) and Sommers (6.3 ppg) round out Southeastern's top scorers. Holder is averaging just under double figures versus league foes, while Sommers is 10th in the league with 41 three-pointers. The San Antonio, Texas native's 74 career treys are tied for 10th in Lady Lion history.
 
Jenkins is second in the league with 4.5 assists per game. The Plaquemine native ranks fourth on the school's career list with 451 assists in her Southeastern career.
 
The Lady Lions also average 39.3 rebounds per contest. The Southeastern post tandem of Simmons (7.6 rpg, 8th) and Gibson (6.8 rpg 11th) is among the Southland's best on the glass.
 
Opponents are scoring 64.9 points and committing 18.8 turnovers per game against the Lady Lions. Holder is sixth in the league with 1.9 steals per game, while Jenkins needs six steals to crack the school's career top 10. Freshman forward Hillary Shaffer has been the team's top rim protector, ranking 10th in the league with 23 blocked shots.
 
Nicholls State heads into Saturday's contest having already secured its first Southland Conference Tournament berth since 2005. The Lady Colonels clinched a postseason spot with an 86-78 win over last place Northwestern State on Wednesday in Thibodaux. Junior forward Alisha Allen led the way for the Colonels, pouring in a game-high 30 points. Senior guard Sumar Leslie (15 points), freshman guard Jenny Nash (13 points) and senior forward Jasmine Hoskins (10 points) joined Allen in double figures in the win.
 
The Lady Colonels are averaging 66.2 points per game and feature three of the Southland's top scorers in Leslie (16.0 ppg), Allen (14.1 ppg) and sophomore guard KK Babin (12.9 ppg). Leslie (4th) and Babin (8th) also represent two of the league's top distributors, averaging 4.1 and 3.2 assists per game, respectively.
 
Babin is also one of the league's top three-point shooters, sitting in third in the Southland with 73 treys on the year. Nicholls is being out-rebounded by 4.5 boards per game, but Allen is 14th in the league with a team-high 6.5 rebounds per contest.
 
Opponents are scoring 66.4 points and committing 17.2 turnovers per contest against the Lady Colonels. Leslie leads the Southland Conference with 2.6 steals per contest, while Allen's 27 blocked shots put her seventh in the league.
 
Southeastern is 54-13 all-time versus Nicholls State, though the Lady Colonels have won two of the last three meetings. Earlier this season, the Lady Lions shot 54.5 percent from the field in an 88-79 loss in Thibodaux. Jenkins had 19 points and a career-high 11 assists to lead five players in double figures for Southeastern, but the Lady Lions could not overcome a career-high 34 points from Leslie.
 
A Southeastern win would set up a meeting with No. 2 seed McNeese State in Tuesday's first round of the Southland Conference Tournament. A Lady Lion loss plus a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi loss would result in a first round matchup against top seed UCA.
 
 
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