Feb. 11, 2009

Box Score

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - With six seconds left on the clock, senior Justin Payne (Opelousas, La./Opelousas) brought the ball down the court and laid it in himself to give the Colonels a 60-59 upset victory over the top team in the SLC West, Sam Houston State, Wednesday night in Johnson Coliseum.

"That was so much fun," said Head Coach J.P. Piper. "I'm so proud of our guys. We lost one just like this in our last outing. We just told our guys that when you play hard every night and you keep believing, when it comes down to the last second, you win some and you lose some and tonight it balanced out. We got one on the road."

Payne finished with eight points, with three rebounds, three assists and a steal to his name, while senior Ryan Bathie (Melton, Australia/Mowbray) led all scorers with 19.

Sophomore Anatoly Bose (Sydney, Australia/Waverley) also reached double figures, pouring in 12 of his own points, and added a team-high nine rebounds. Bose and freshman Chris Iles (Houston, Texas/Alief) led Nicholls with five assists apiece.

The Colonels shot 51.1% (24-for-47) in the game and out-rebounded SHSU 31 to 29.

"It was an unbelievable effort by all of our guys and particularly by Justin Payne to go the length of the floor and make a really tough shot under a lot of pressure," Piper added. "This was a hostile environment and it's good to get this type of win."

Sam Houston (13-9, 7-2 SLC) tied the game at 39-all before freshman Chris Iles (Houston, Texas/Alief) drained a three to put the Colonels back on top. Bathie hit two treys of his own to extend the Colonel lead to nine (52-43) with 3:44 left to play.

The squads traded buckets back-and-forth as the Kats cut the Nicholls lead to two points (56-54) with just over a minute left in the game. Payne laid one in at the 31 second mark to give the Colonels a four-point lead, but SHSU's Barkley Falkner put up an old-fashioned three-point play to make it a one-point, 58-57 game.

Nicholls (14-9, 7-3 SLC) held the Bearkats scoreless for over six minutes in the opening half, breaking a 4-4 stalemate with an 8-0 run. Sam Houston pulled within two points with back-to-back layups, but Carter and freshman Cameron McCallum (Melton, Australia/Mowbray) combined for eight points in the final three minutes to send the Colonels to the locker room with a 26-20 lead.

Bose poured in six points and grabbed seven boards through the opening 20 minutes to lead the Colonels, adding three assists to his first-half ledger.

The win snaps an eight game winning streak for Sam Houston - the longest of the year in the Southland Conference.

The Colonels held SHSU to just 33.3% (8-of-24) shooting in the first half, while sinking 12-of-24 (50.0%) on their end.

Nicholls returns to Thibodaux this weekend to host Southeastern Louisiana for a 3 p.m. tip-off Saturday afternoon.

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