HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Nicholls State University women's basketball team clawed back from a 23-point deficit late in the third quarter to make it a one-possession game, but Southern Miss would hold on to defeat the Colonels, 77-71, Thursday night in the opening round of the Women's Basketball Invitational.
Playing in her final game as a Colonel, senior
Cassidy Barrios sparked the comeback with 21 fourth-quarter points. Nicholls was down by 21 at the end of the third before outscoring the Lady Eagles 23-4 in the first six minutes of the fourth to cut the deficit to 65-63. But the Colonels were never able to tie it up or take the lead as they saw their season come to an end.
Nicholls ended the year with a 20-12 overall record, while Southern Miss improved to 18-13. The Lady Eagles advance to the next round of the WBI to play North Alabama.
Barrios finished with her 20th double-double of the season, tallying a game-high 29 points and 13 rebounds. She added four assists to surpass 400 for her career. Barrios also totaled 660 points for the year, tying for ninth all-time in the Southland, and wrapped up her career ranked eighth all-time in the SLC in career points with 1,993.
Chrystal Ezechukwu also scored in double figures with 10 points while adding seven rebounds. All 10 of her points came in the first half on 4 of 7 from the field. Nicholls had 16 turnovers before the break but trailed only 36-30 at the intermission.
Southern Miss looked to have put the game away with a dominating third quarter. USM held Nicholls to 3 of 14 from the field to outscore the Colonels in the quarter, 25-10. They saw their biggest lead at 61-38 right before the end of the period.
In the Colonels' run in the fourth, Barrios made three 3-pointers while redshirt freshman
Lauryn Bowie (8 points) added three buckets inside, including one on a putback that made it a two-point game with 3:49 remaining. The Colonels were within three points three times the rest of the way but came up short in another historic comeback. Nicholls erased a 23-point second-half deficit earlier this season in a win at ULM.
Megan Brown scored 18 points to lead Southern Miss, which extended its winning streak in the series to four games. Shonte Hailes added 16 points and had six steals. USM took advantage of 24 Colonel turnovers for a 32-20 advantage in points off of turnovers.
