Jan. 12, 2008

Box Score

HUNTSVILLE, Tex. - The Colonels out scored the Bearkats in the second half, but it wasn't enough to recover from their dismal shooting in the first period as Nicholls lost 61-51 in Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum on Saturday night.

Sam Houston State went into the locker room at halftime up 34-16 as the Colonels only shot 18.2 percent (4-of-22) from field goal range and had a 0-for-6 showing from three-point territory. Nicholls finished the game shooting 25.0 percent (4-of-16) from downtown in the loss.

The Colonels did pick up the slack in the second half as they shot 55.0 percent (11-of-20) from the floor, but it wasn't enough to garner a victory. True freshman Anatoly Bose was the only Colonel to register double-digits in the game as he rung up 10 off the bench. It marked the fourth straight game that Bose scored in double-figures, and only the third contest all season that Nicholls had only one player cross the decade mark. In those three games, the Colonels are 0-3.

"I thought that the team played hard and played tough tonight despite the final score," said head coach J.P. Piper. "I am very proud in how we fought back in the second half, and was very pleased with the youth of our team tonight."

Making the most of his playing time tonight was true freshman Jacob Turnipseed, who came off the bench in the second half to score nine points in 11 minutes on the hardwood. Also getting in on the action was true freshman K.J. Lee as he scored four points in only eight minutes of play.

Nicholls (6-11, 1-1) was out rebounded 43-to-24, but did win the turnover battle as the Colonels only turned the ball over 20 times the Bearkats' 23. Bose led the team in rebounds with seven, while the next best on the boards was junior Justin Payne with four in only 19 minutes of play.

The Bearkats (13-2, 1-1) had two players score in double digits with Shamir McDaniel leading all scorers with 14 on 5-of-9 from the floor and 4-of-7 from three-point land. Reggie Rawlins was the only other 10-plus scorer with 12-points off the bench, while Ryan Bright had a game best 11 rebounds. Although Bright recorded his season average in rebounds, he fell short of his 11.5 points per game average with only five.

Nicholls will pick up Southland Conference action on Thursday at Texas-Arlington on Thursday Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. GameTracker will be made available for fans to follow the game live statistically on the internet, and Brennan Matherne will have all the play-by-play action starting at 6:45 p.m. with pre-game on 105.9 FM KBZE and 690 AM KTIB. Those tuning in outside the local listening area can catch the game on www.kbze.com.