Lady Lions remain undefeated at home after win over HCU

HAMMOND, LA. – The Southeastern Louisiana University women’s basketball team started the weekend with a 63-58 win against the HCU Huskies at 5 p.m. Thursday night in the University Center.

Southeastern (6-5, 2-0 SLC) are now 2-0 in conference with their most recent win against the HCU Huskies as they start their home game stretch this weekend.

Hailey Giaratano led the Lions with 19 points and senior Cierra Cunningham had a spectacular game against the Huskies with a season high of 18 points. Natalie Kelly led with 11 rebounds.

Cunningham has been putting in the work during practice this week and Head Coach Ayla Guzzardo couldn’t be happier with her progress. “Cici is a gamer. And we know what she is capable of, I’m just happy that our fans get to see what she can do. She was confident in herself but she’s been putting in a lot of work outside of practice and it’s paying off.”

The 65-58 win over HCU proved crucial for Southeastern as the Huskies are the defending regular season Southland Conference champions. Their last meeting against the Lady Lions last season ended in a loss for SLU 51-40 win last year. The Lady Lions are now 4-0 at home and 2-0 in conference with another game on the way this weekend against Lamar on Saturday.

Southeastern opened up the game on a hot streak as Giaratano had a good jumpshot answering HCU’s N’Denasija Collins’ layup. The rest of the first quarter would be in Southeastern’s favor as they would go ahead and score a whopping 24 points versus HCU’s 10 points. The Lady Lions were able to keep HCU to no second chance points throughout the quarter and forced six turnovers before the clock ran out.

Cunningham opened up the second quarter with a driving layup. Southeastern would keep up the momentum as Giaratano, Horne, Jaylen Huderson and Chrissy Brown were able to put points up on the board. Southeastern would end the half with a total of 40 points to HCU’s 19.

Once halftime was over, HCU came back out with a chip on their shoulder and put up a solid 19 points, outscoring Southeastern by eight points and forcing two turnovers on Giaratano and Cunningham. The lead would decrease from 40-19 to 51-38 by the end of the third.

“We stopped being aggressive as we were in the first half.” Said Guzzardo, “That hurt our defensive intensity.”

By the time the fourth quarter came around, Southeastern’s lead dwindled to a mere three- point lead with 1:07 left on the clock after a back-and-forth show out for both teams with the score being 61-58 until Giaratano put up a good layup to end the game 63-58.

Southeastern will hit a quick turnaround before playing Lamar in their second home game this weekend Saturday January 7th at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Game live stats can be accessed on www.lionsports.net .

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