Cowgirls struggle early, fall to Nicholls

Published 3:42 pm Saturday, February 1, 2025

THIBODAUX – At some point, the Cowgirls are going to have to put a full game together.

If not, their struggles will continue, and a spot in the Southland Conference’s postseason tournament will be in doubt.

Once again Saturday, there were moments of solid play followed by too many minutes of inconsistency and confusion.

Email newsletter signup

The end result was another frustrating 40 minutes of inconsistent play. And another loss.

Nicholls used an even effort to defeat McNeese 84-67 in Stopher Gymnasium to sweep the season series.

The loss dropped McNeese to 8-14, 3-8, as they started the second half of the league season. Nicholls improved to 15-6, 8-4, holding on to third place. The Cowgirls remained tied for the eighth and final spot in the tourney but held the tiebreaker over Corpus Christi. 

“We got to find some consistency,” said McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy. “We have to work on ourselves. We are running out of time to figure things out.”

McNeese shot just 25 percent from the floor in the first half but hit 64% (18-28) in the second. That type of inconsistency has plagued the Cowgirls.

“I liked the shots again early; they just weren’t going in,” said Kennedy. “I thought we got in bad foul trouble, but we have to work through that. We can’t have excuses at this time of the year.”

The poor shooting led to a 39-25 Colonels lead at the half.

“It’s tough to keep coming from behind like that,” Kennedy said. 

Paris Guillory led McNeese with 17 points, while Boston Berry had 13. Eli Garnett led all scorers with 23 points and 10 rebounds for Nicholls.

In the second half, McNeese’s defense struggled to push the pace. The Colonels scored 84 points, the most of the year.

“You have to be locked in on defense in rivalry games,” said Kennedy. “We weren’t.”

The Cowgirls’ last run of the game came late in the third quarter when they closed to 54-42 on Wilnie Joseph’s turnaround with 2:19 left. Joseph finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

However, the Colonels scored the final seven points of the quarter to lead 61-42 and all but put the outcome to bed.

McNeese will be back home Thursday night to take on East Texas A&M (4-16, 1-10). The Cowgirls won the first game between the two this season 64-55 in Commerce, Texas.

Tip time is set for 6 p.m.