Box Score and Play-by-Play

BEAUMONT, Texas -  The Lamar University Cardinals (16-4, 5-1 Southland Conference) showed the form that made them defending Southland Conference regular season and tournament champions on Saturday as the Nicholls State University women's basketball team  (6-14, 1-6 Southland Conference) fell to the league power Cardinals 79-62 on Saturday at the Montagne Center.

Nicholls was led by 20 points from senior guard Ricshanda Bikcham and 15 from junior guard Sumar Leslie.  The Colonel defense also stepped up by recording 14 steals, the 13th time this season Nicholls has recorded ten or more steals in a game.  Nicholls was strong in transition against the bigger Cardinals, racking up 24 points off 24 Lamar turnovers.

Unfortunately, for Nicholls, Lamar answered with a quartet of double-digit scorers.  The Cardinals outshot the Colonels .508 (30-for-59) to .333 (21-for-36) while outrebounding Nicholls 44-33 and outscoring the Colonels in the paint 36-16.

After spending three of the last four games away from home, Nicholls will return to Stopher Gym for a two-game homestand beginning with a Feb. 2 contest against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.