Southeastern women’s basketball (17-11, 13-4 SLC) suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time since December of 2023.
SLU fell to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 79-73 on the road in overtime on Saturday (March 2).
The tough loss came after the Green and Gold dropped their previous game vs. UIW, 63-61 in San Antonio (Feb. 29).
Some silver lining to take from Southeastern’s recent road slump was its dramatic home victory over UNO in Hammond, America last Saturday.
Lady Lions sophomore guard Allasia Washington scored a career-best 17 points off the bench to lift the Green and Gold past the University of New Orleans (10-18, 7-10 SLC) 69-66 in overtime on Feb. 24 at the Pride Roofing University Center.
Washington had scored in double-figures in four out of her last five games before SLU’s most recent two contests against UIW and TAMU-CC. After being held scoreless versus Houston Christian University on Feb. 17, the Baton Rouge native came out with a vengeance against UNO.
“She’s consistent and has more confidence in herself, which is fun to see. And she makes her free throws, the team that can make their free throws gets the win,” Head Coach Ayla Guzzardo said.
After four quarters of play, the game between the Southland Conference foes went into overtime. Free throws from junior guard Dijone’ Flowers put SLU up 69-66 with two seconds remaining.
The Privateers had a chance to send the game into a second overtime period but missed the potential game-tying three.
UNO’s center, Nora Francois, gave the Lady Lions a run for their money. She posted up 30 points and 13 boards in the narrow loss.
“It should’ve never come down to overtime. We should’ve won it in regulation. We played out of character today. We made some bad decisions on the defensive and offensive end. When the tournament comes, we’ll be better. We’ve got veteran players that know that,” Guzzardo said.
In the last 31 seconds of the game, a team technical foul was given out to the Privateers. The foul awarded senior guard Hailey Giaratano four free throws, which she calmly swished to give SLU a 55-50 lead.
UNO guard Dearica Pryor made a layup to cut the lead down to three, then Francois drilled a top-of-the-key three-pointer to tie the game.
Giaratano made two more free throws on SLU’s subsequent offensive possession, and then Francois responded again with a layup to send the game into OT.
Sophomore guard Jen Pierre had a chance to win the game at the buzzer but missed the contested floater.
Giaratano ended the game with 10 points, junior guard Ariana Patton dropped 11 and freshman guard Kennedy Paul added 13 off the bench.
The Green and Gold will look to replicate a similar performance against Nicholls (13-16, 7-10 SLC) in their season finale tomorrow night (March 7) at the PRUC.
The two Southland foes will clash at 5:30 p.m. with SLC tournament seeding on the line.
Tune in on ESPN+ to watch the game live.
For more information on Lady Lion basketball, visit The Lion’s Roar.
