NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers women's basketball team was locked in a tough battle until the short end of a third quarter run sealed their fate in a 72-63 loss to the East Texas A&M Lions on Saturday at Lakefront Arena.
Shanihya Brown got close to what would have been back-to-back games with a Privateer triple-double against East Texas A&M (
Nora Francois in February 2025), but fell two assists and one rebound short.
The Privateers and Lions battled to what was a two-point difference at the end of the first half with East Texas A&M leading 26-24. Neither team shot better than 32 percent as the defenses created tough looks throughout the opening 20 minutes.
The lead changed hands 10 times and there were four ties in the first half. New Orleans led by as many as five points when
Sephora Kayolo had a second chance bucket that opened the scoring in the second quarter.
However, the Lions got to the bonus quickly in the third and used an 11-0 run to grow a five-point lead to their biggest of the second half at 16 points with 3:41 remaining in the third quarter.
The Privateers kept threatening to chip away throughout the latter stages of the third and into the fourth quarter and began to force more turnovers in the final minutes. New Orleans also had their best scoring quarter in the fourth with 21 points but it wasn't enough to overcome a Lions squad that shot just over 60 percent in the second half.
Nina Horvath had a team-high 24 points while Tiani Ellison had 23 points and 10 rebounds for East Texas A&M.
INSIDE THE BOX
Brown finished the afternoon with 14 points, nine rebounds and assists.
Brialle Washington finished with 12 points and five rebounds. Kayolo added 11 points and four rebounds during her second double-digit scoring effort of the season.
NEXT UP
The Privateers head to Southeastern on Thursday, Jan. 8.
BLUES ON TUES NEWSLETTER
To keep up with all athletics news at the University of New Orleans, subscribe
here for our weekly newsletter.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow
@PrivateersWBB on Twitter/X,
@PrivateersWBB on Instagram, and like
/PrivateersWBB on Facebook.
