Strong First Half Not Enough as Ladyjacks Fall in Southland Tournament Title Game, 69-65

Sunday, March 11

Katy, Texas

Noon

Stephen F. Austin

25-6

#4 Nicholls

19-13

Nicholls

Stephen F. Austin

Strong First Half Not Enough as Ladyjacks Fall in Southland Tournament Title Game, 69-65

3/11/2018 4:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

SFA shoots 39.7 percent from the field in title game loss

By: Kevin Meyer | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

KATY, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin women's basketball team got off to a picturesque start in Sunday's Southland Tournament Championship and led by double-digits at the half, but fell victim to the resurgent Colonels in the second half and dropped a 69-65 decision. The loss drops the Ladyjacks to 25-6 on the season and the team will now wait to find out its postseason fate without the Southland's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

A trio of Ladyjacks posted strong efforts in the contest on the way to each earning All-Tournament Team honors. Chanell Hayes led SFA with 17 points, five rebounds and three steals, while Imani Johnson had another strong game with 13 points, five rebounds and five assists. Playing in her final Southland Tournament game, Stevi Parker notched nine points and eight rebounds for the 'Jacks. Riley Harvey turned in an excellent game off the bench for the 'Jacks, finishing with 16 points on 5-7 shooting from the field and a 5-6 effort from the line.

From the beginning of the contest, it looked as if SFA was poised to run away with the contest, as they opened up a 16-2 lead in the opening six minutes of play. The duo of Johnson and Hayes did much of the early damage, chipping in six points apiece, while Parker added four. Even as Nicholls began to shake off the slow start and chip away at the lead, the 'Jacks would hold a 23-11 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to 8-14 shooting from the floor and a 5-6 effort from the free throw line.

Neither team would carve out an advantage in the second frame, as both sides would notch 17 points. Hayes would add another seven points in the quarter on a trey and two layups, while Riley Harvey chipped in six points in as many minutes off the bench. For the Colonels, the individual efforts of Southland Conference Player of the Year Cassidy Barrios and Tia Charles, combining to add 14 points in the stanza, helped Nicholls keep pace. As such, the halftime margin was in double-digits in SFA's favor, amounting to a 40-28 SFA edge.

Despite controlling the momentum in the first half and running its offense to the tune of nearly 50 percent shooting, the 'Jacks struggled to match the efficiency of the Colonels in the second half. Embarking on a scoring flourish reminiscent of its semifinals win over Lamar, Nicholls would post 26 third-quarter points to trim nine points off the SFA lead. An improbable 6-7 shooting performance from beyond the arc by Nicholls in the quarter was the catalyst for the surge, which brought the game to within one point, 55-54, heading into the final quarter of play.

In the fourth stanza, SFA would see several good looks at the basket not go down, and as a result saw Nicholls take the lead for the first time in the contest in the opening minutes of the quarter. Twice the Ladyjacks would retake the lead, but a pair of untimely turnovers with SFA down 64-60 robbed the Ladyjacks of a third chance. Despite that, some late-game heroics from Harvey gave SFA fleeting life with 2:17 left to play. The sophomore from Howe, Texas entered the matchup 0-7 on the season from beyond the arc, but flushed her first trey of the season with 3:01 left to play, and added a layup less than a minute later to close the gap to just one. That was as close as SFA would get, however, as Nicholls added a layup and free throw to ice the contest.

SFA would carve out small advantages in points in the paint (32-28), second-chance points (10-7) and fast break points (10-8) in the contest, and the SFA bench outscored their counterparts from Nicholls 19-2. SFA shot 23-58 (39.7 percent) from the field and 7-26 (26.9 percent) from beyond the arc, while sinking 12-14 attempts from the charity stripe.

The Ladyjacks will now wait to find out their postseason fate and where the 2017-18 season will continue. More information on that will follow on sfajacks.com as soon as it is available.

-SFA-