Women's Basketball Battles McNeese State on Homecoming

MCNEESE STATE AT NEW ORLEANS
SATURDAY, JAN. 30 | 4 PM
NEW ORLEANS, LA. | LAKEFRONT ARENA

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The New Orleans Privateers women's basketball team (6-11, 3-5 Southland) will close out the month of January against another Louisiana opponent in the McNeese State Cowgirls (13-7, 5-3) in the front end of a Homecoming doubleheader on Saturday. Tip is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Lakefront Arena.
 
The Privateers rallied back from a seven-point deficit at the beginning of the fourth quarter to defeat Nicholls 62-55 on Wednesday. Randi Brown scored 17 of her 28 points in the fourth and New Orleans went 14-for-16 from the free throw line in the second half. Brown pushed past the 600-point mark for her career and set a new season high in points in the win.
 
Alexis Martin contributed a career-best four steals in the victory over the Colonels. Martin has been a mainstay in the starting lineup with 16 starts. "It's so important to have Alexis out there," said Coach Keeshawn Davenport. "She is going to make the hustle plays constantly and that's what I appreciate about her. She has a never quit attitude and it's always good to have a player like that on the floor that gets everyone else energized."
 
Wednesday marked the sixth time the Privateers held an opponent to under 40 percent from the field. New Orleans has been successful in the win column, going 5-1 in those games. Nicholls was held to just 30.5 percent from the field, the second lowest total by a Privateers opponent this season.
 
As the race for the Southland tournament continues to heat up, many teams are still knotted close together nearly halfway through the conference schedule. Nicholls currently holds the fourth spot at 4-4 and the remaining nine teams are no further than 1 ½ games behind.  "This is why I continue to stress to my team that all we can do is take care of our business and take it one game at a time. I think they're doing a great job focusing on the task at hand," said Davenport.
 
Once again, the Privateers will face McNeese State in back-to-back games. This season, the gap between the two games is shorter as New Orleans will rematch with McNeese on Tuesday in Lake Charles. "When you have that, you don't have a different scouting report. It's all about making corrections from the first game so for us, we have to stay the course and carry out our game plan," said Davenport.
 
McNeese State had their second highest scoring output of the season in a 96-79 win over Southeastern in their last outing. Four Cowgirls scored in double figures to move McNeese to 5-3 in conference, which is good for third place at the moment. Frederica Haywood pulled down 17 of the Cowgirls' 38 rebounds in the win.
 
Jalyn Johnson leads a host of dangerous guards. The Cowgirls' starting point guard is averaging 14.9 points per game while leading the conference in assists (5.3 per game). Johnson has gone for 12 assists in two of her last four outings and also poured in 31 points in the victory over Southeastern on Wednesday.
 
"Jalyn is the captain of that ship. She is very effective and smart and she gets it done on both ends of the floor," said Davenport. "We have to know where she is at all times, contain her in the press and not let her dribble straight through. It's going to take a committee and she's so quick that even if we're in man, we'll have to rely on a little help defense."
 
The Cowgirls are coached by Brooks Donald-Williams who is in her ninth season in Lake Charles. Last season, Williams broke the all-time mark for wins in program history and is currently sitting at 154 victories entering Saturday. Under her guidance, the Cowgirls have made two NCAA tournaments (2011, 2012).
 
New Orleans leads the all-time series 14-11 over McNeese State and holds a 7-4 mark against the Cowgirls at home. The last outing was a 90-86 triple overtime winner that the Privateers won at the Lakefront on Feb. 5, 2015.
 
For more information on ticket purchasing for the 2015-16 season, click here or call (504) 280-GAME (4263).
 
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