HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana will host its most common opponent, Nicholls, Saturday in Southland Conference action at 1 p.m. in the University Center.
Chey Stewart will be the PRIDE Spotlight Player of the Game. Trading cards featuring the junior forward from Wylie, Texas will be distributed to the first 100 fans courtesy of PRIDE.
Southeastern (3-19, 2-9) and Nicholls (8-13, 6-5) have played 75 times in their series dating back to 1974-75 with the Lady Lions holding a commanding 56-19 lead.
Southeastern lost to McNeese State, 83-74, on Wednesday to slip two games behind Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the eighth and final spot into next month's Southland Conference Tournament. The Lady Lions rallied from an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit to pull to within six with 1:30 remaining but could not catch the Cowgirls.
Senior guard
Erica Hernandez dropped in 18 points while senior guard
KaeLynn Boyd had 17 points and seven boards. Senior forward
Nanna Pool added 13 points while freshman forward
Kyle Felton had a career-high 10 rebounds.
Nicholls had a comeback of its own against McNeese State this past Saturday, rallying from a 12-point fourth-quarter hole to take an 85-81 home victory. The win gave Nicholls head coach DoBee Plaisance her 90th career win, the most in program history. Freshman Cassidy Barrios scored a game-high 24 point and senior LiAnn McCarthy had 22 as Nicholls moved into fourth place in league play.
Southeastern comes into the game averaging 63.5 points per game while shooting 36.7 percent. The Lady Lions are allowing 82.0 points on 41.7 percent shooting from the field.
Pool is 10th in the Southland with 14.3 points per game while ranking second in field goal percentage (.508) and fourth in both rebounding (8.0 ppg) and blocked shots (1.2 bpg). Sophomore guard
Taylin Underwood is 15th in scoring (13.5 ppg) and tied for third in 3-pointers made (2.6). Senior guard
Peaches Anderson is 13th in assists (2.7 apg) while senior guard
Erica Hernandez is ninth in 3-point field goal percentage (.368).
Pool, Underwood, Boyd (12.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 60 assists, 25 steals), Hernandez (8.2 ppg, 35 assists) and Felton (3.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 12 blocks) are expected to start for Southeastern on Saturday.
McCarthy leads the Colonels and is 17th in the league in averaging 13.3 points per game. Barrios is averaging 11.0 points per game while coming in seventh in free throw (.824) and 3-point (.378) percentage; eighth in steals (1.8 spg); 11th in field goal percentage (.429) and 20th in rebounds (5.5 rpg).
Sophomore guard Tia Charles (9.6 ppg, 32 assists, 32 steals), junior guard Hope Pawlowski (9.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg,, 50 assists, 61 steals) and junior center Marina Lilly (8.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg, nine blocks, 24 steals) are the other top scorers for Nicholls. Pawlowski is second in the SLC in steals (2.9 spg) while Lilly is 13th in rebounding.
Freshman guard Airi Hamilton, who helped lead Ponchatoula High to the Class 5A state championship in 2015, has started 14 of 21 games for the Colonels and is averaging 3.6 points per game.
Nicholls is sixth in the Southland with 63.6 points per game on 39.3 percent shooting. The Colonels are allowing 68.0 points per game as opponents are shooting 42.4 percent from the field.
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Southeastern has dominated the series overall but Nicholls has had the upperhand in recent years, taking seven of the last 10. The Colonels swept the season series in 2014-15, taking a 93-80 win in Thibodaux before edging the Lady Lions 77-74 in the final game of the season in Hammond. Southeastern's last win in the series came in 2013-14, a 68-66 victory in the University Center.
The teams will close out the regular season at Nicholls on March 5.
