Jan. 13, 2010
Final Stats
THIBODAUX - Down by nine with under three minutes left, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team (5-10, 1-1 Southland Conference) pulled to within three with less than a minute left. However, the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners (12-3, 2-0 Southland) managed to ice the Colonels' late rally with a pair of free throws in the final seconds to snap Nicholls' two-game win streak by a final of 64-59 at UTSA's Convocation Center in a battle of hot teams on Wednesday night.
Junior guard/forward Anatoly Bose picked up his seventh straight 20-point game by leading all scorers with 24 points, and sophomore guard/forward Fred Hunter added 20 points to the Colonel cause.
Nicholls, which came into the contest on a two-game win streak and as winners of five of its last six, started strong. The Colonels opened with an 8-2 run and increased their lead to seven as junior forward Dominic Friend hit a three to make it 13-6 with 13:46 left in the first.
However, UTSA would not go quietly in a game that saw four tie scores and six lead changes. The Roadrunners, who came into the game as winners of three in a row and five of their last six, saw double-digit scoring outputs from four different players.
The Roadrunners tied things up after a pair of free throws from Demarco Stepter made it 22-22 with just over six minutes left in the first half. The Roadrunners started heating up in the second half as UTSA went on a 12-3 that put them up by eight as Morris Smith IV hit a jumper to make it 55-47 with 6:39 left in the half.
The Colonels began mounting their comeback with a 12-7 run after that to make it 62-59 with 48 seconds to go. A three-pointer from Bose, his third of the night, brought Nicholls to within three.
However, after drawing a foul with 13 seconds left, Smith hit both free throws to give UTSA the final 64-59 margin of victory.
The Colonels will return to action when they head back to Thibodaux to host the defending Southland Conference regular season and tournament champion Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in a meeting of preseason Southland East Division favorites.
Tipoff for the contest, originally set for 2 p.m., has been moved up to noon to accommodate the Louisiana High School Association Hall of Fame Basketball Classics, which are slated to start at 3 p.m.
