McNeese Cowgirls beat Nicholls for second time in three days

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - The McNeese Cowgirls and Nicholls Colonels faced off against one another on Thursday, January 19th at Stopher Gymnasium.

The Cowgirls won 77-68, as they got their first road win of the 2022-23 season, but then just two days later, the two squared off for the second time in three days, but this time at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles.

Immediately following the tip-off, the Colonels found the bottom of the bucket as Amelia Sandie found Deonna Brister for an easy uncontested layup under the rim, but from there the Cowgirls answered, and did so in a huge way.

After falling behind 2-0 on the opening tip-off, the Cowgirls proceeded to outscore the Colonels 16-2 from that point on taking a swift 16-4 lead just six minutes into the game, but then they plateaued.

McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy subbed four of his five starters out at the same time, which would turn to be a mistake, Nicholls went on a 23-3 run to take a 27-19 lead, which is when coach Kennedy put his starters back in the game, but the damage had already been done, McNeese trailed 35-27 going into halftime, as Nicholls closed out the first half on a 31-11 run.

The second half was more of the same as the two continued to go back and forth, McNeese cut the Nicholls lead to just one heading into the final quarter with the Colonels leading 51-50, but the Cowgirls once again found their rhythm in the fourth as they were able to outscore Nicholls 20-11 in the final 10 minutes of the game as they would go onto win it 70-62.

“This is where the back-to-back games come in cause you play a team, I thought they adjusted well, and they did a couple of things that we weren’t ready for, we tried to adjust, but we weren’t making shots either, so going into halftime, I liked the momentum we had going into halftime, we got after it at halftime, and then we came out in the third quarter and we really, I thought our intensity on defense really showed, they go 16.7 (percent) from three, we held them to nine offensive rebounds, we took care of the ball better in the second half, but you saw our level of intensity go up, we’ve been talking about it all year, I think we’re a good team right now, and we have moments where we’re a great team” said coach Kennedy following the game.

• Desirae Hansen: 14 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
• Kaili Chamberlin: 11 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal

“This is important, yeah, we needed some momentum now going to the road, to get our first road win on Thursday, and now we can turn around and really focus on UIW and try to get that second one” said coach Kennedy on the Cowgirls three-game win streak.

The Cowgirls will be back in action at Alice P. McDermott Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas on Thursday, January 26th, at 5:30p.m. when they will take on Incarnate Word.

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