HOUSTON – HCU women's basketball picked up their second consecutive Southland Conference win with a 68-55 victory over the Nicholls Colonels.
 
HCU (10-12, 5-6 SLC) exploded in the first quarter with 24 points on 63 percent shooting. Nicholls opened up the contest with a wide open layup. Abbey Sutherland got fouled on a layup opportunity on the Huskies first trip down the floor and made bot free-throws to even things up at two.
 
The teams traded buckets over the next four minutes before Kennedy Wilson knocked down a three-pointer to give the Huskies a 12-11 advantage. This sparked a 15-4 Husky run over the next five minutes including six big points from both N'Denasija Collins and Sutherland. The Colonels' (4-17, 1-9 SLC) Lexi Alexander made layup as the clock ticked down to cut the Husky lead to seven, 24-17 heading into the second quarter.
 
HCU's offense was quieted in the second quarter. The Colonels outscored the Huskies 14-8 in the period and held HCU to just 4-of-16 shooting from the floor and 0-of-7 shooting from three point range. Nicholls trimmed the HCU lead to just one, 32-31 heading into halftime.
 
After briefly giving up the lead at the beginning of the third quarter, HCU locked down defensively and quickly went on an 18-2 run. During that span they shot five-of-eight from the floor and a perfect seven-of-seven from the foul line.
 
Nzoiwu got fouled in the paint at the 8:02 mark and knocked down both free-throw opportunities before Collins made layups on back-to-back possessions. Kennedy Wilson knocked down a three ball, a layup, and a pair of free throws giving the Huskies a 55-38 lead at the end of three periods.
 
A sloppy fourth quarter saw both teams combine for 15 turnovers and the Colonels cut into the Husky lead. However, the huge lead they built in the third was too much for Nicholls to overcome. Nicholls cut the lead down to a manageable nine points with just under five minutes to play, however HCU would hold Nicholls to just three points over that span.
 
Collins follower up her career high performance against the Lady Demons with a 20 point performance this afternoon. Nzoiwu stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and a block. Wilson finished with 14 points including two made three pointers. Sutherland finished with 10 points and five rebounds and finished with team highs in steals and blocks with two each. Julija Vujakovic finished with seven points and two rebounds.
 
Lexi Alexander and Deonna Brister both finished with 19 points and six rebounds for the Colonels. Alexander finished with a game high four steals.  
 
HCU is back in action next week with road matchups against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday before heading to San Antonio to battle UIW on Saturday.