Lady Lions sweep Nicholls at home

HAMMOND, La – The Southeastern Louisiana University women’s basketball team swept Nicholls after home contest, winning 90-52 Saturday in the University Center.

The Lady Lions (15-8, 10-3 Southland) are now alone in first place in the Southland Conference after a standout win against the Colonels.

Cierra Cunningham led the Lady Lions with 17 points with Hailey Giaratano stacking the stat sheet with 15. Natalie Kelly led with 14 rebounds while Chrissy Brown was also in double digit rebounding with 13. Jen Pierre was the player of the game as she finished out the game with 14 points, seven assists, three steals and four rebounds.

Southeastern started out slow in the first few minutes of the first quarter as Nicholls would go six-point run before Southeastern would begin leading at 1:32 left in the quarter when Pierre was able to get in two good free throws before Daija Harvey put up a three pointer that furthered the lead and SLU would end the first quarter 19-12.

The second quarter would continue to go the way of the Lady Lions as Alexius Horne put up a jumper. SLU would go on a 6-0 run before Nicholls would be able to get in another shot. Dijone’ Flowers came into the game and scored her first points as a three pointer at 5:06 in the second quarter. Cunningham upped the score with a three pointer, increasing the SLU lead to 33-18 with 3:28 left in the first half. Southeastern would go on to have a 60 percent three-point percentage. The Lady Lions would go into the locker room at halftime leading by 20 with a 42-22 score.

Cunningham opened up the third quarter with a jump-shot and Southeastern would continue the upward trend as it would have its best shooting game of the season. The Lady Lions would go to shoot 76 percent from the floor, 76 percent from the three and 83 percent from the charity stripe. SLU would end the third quarter with one of the biggest leads of the season with a 31-point advantage 70-39 after Harvey put up two three pointers and Flowers put up a three pointer at 3:11 left in the quarter.

In the fourth, Southeastern would score 20 points compared to the Colonels’ 13 and would continue to hold the lead for the rest of the game. Pierre opened up the quarter with a jumper before Harvey would shoot two good free throws. Giaratano would follow up with a three pointer, upping the score to 77-44. SLU would keep the scoring up as it would reach another season high in points with the Lady Lions reaching 90 points, this is the second time this season that Southeastern was able to reach 90. SLU would finish off the Colonels with a good jump-shot by Flowers and fastbreak layup in the paint by Pierre.

Southeastern would score 24 points off of turnovers, 36 points in the paint, 18 points from second chance, 17 fast break points, and 29 bench points.

The Lady Lions’ next contest is Northwestern in Natchitoches, La Thursday Feb. 16 at 5 p.m. After that, they will be heading to Commerce, Texas to take on the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions Saturday Feb 18 at 2 p.m. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats can be accessed on www.LionSports.net.