Final Stats Box Score and Play-by-Play

THIBODAUX -  The Colonels had four double-digit scorers, led by matching 22 point performances from senior forward Anatoly Bose and junior guard/forward Fred Hunter, and the Nicholls defense withstood a second half rally from the Cardinals as the Nicholls State University men's basketball team (10-8, 4-3 Southland Conference) held on for a 78-71 win over the Lamar Cardinals (9-10, 3-3 Southland Conference) in the finale of the Colonels longest homestand of the season on Saturday.

The victory comes off the heels of the Colonels first home court loss in nearly a year.  In their last outing, Nicholls dropped a 66-65 heartbreaker to in-state and league rival McNeese State on Wednesday.  The loss was the first for the Colonels in Stopher Gym since Feb. 10, 2010.

The Colonels avoided consecutive losses thanks to a balanced offense and a solid defense that thwarted the highest scoring team in the Southland Conference.  Despite allowing the Cardinals a trio of double-digit scorers, Nicholls scored 24 points off of 18 Lamar turnovers, keeping the Cards in check.

The first half started slow as Lamar scored the first four points of the ballgame, and the only points through the first 3:30.  The Colonels finally got on the board at the 16:17 mark as Hunter connected on a three pointer, the first of three for him and 11 for Nicholls on the day.  The trey gave Hunter his 999th, 1,000th and 1,001st points of his career, making him the 23rd Colonel in school history to pass the 1K mark.  Hunter joins Bose (1,836 career points) to give the Colonels two 1,000 career point scorers on the same team for the first time since the 1993-94 season.

Bose and Hunter were just getting warmed up as the duo combined for 44 points on .571 shooting (16-for-28).  Bose was 4-for-8 from three point range, while Hunter was 3-for-4.  Also heating up from downtown was redshirt junior guard Ben Martin.  The Thibodaux native was 4-for-8 from three point range en route to 14 points, a new career high.  Senior guard Kellan Carter added 10 points and recorded two of Nicholls'  four steals to lead the defensive effort.

The Colonels took a 33-23 lead into halftime and expanded their lead to 15 when a layup by Hunter made it 43-28 in favor of Nicholls with 15:57 left.  However, the Cardinals showed what made them the highest scoring offense in the league heading into this contest by putting themselves back in the game with a 22-5 run over the next 4:30.  A layup off a Colonel turnover capped the stretch and put Lamar up 50-48 with 9:27 left.

However, Nicholls responded with a 7-0 run to go back up 55-50 on a three by Martin with 6:51 remaining.  After going back and forth with the Cardinals on the next few possessions, the Colonels stretched their lead to seven when a three-pointer by Bose made it 62-55 with 4:24 to go.  After Lamar connected on a pair of free throws on the next trip up the floor, Bose buried another three to put Nicholls up eight, 65-57 with just over four minutes remaining.

Lamar threatened to climb back into the ballgame late as a 5-0 run brought the Cards to within three of the Colonels, 74-71 with 29 seconds left.  However, now forced to foul, Lamar sent the Colonels to the line four times in the final 30 seconds with Martin and senior point guard Kenny Franklin Jr. connecting on two free throws each to ice the game.

The Colonels will now hit the road for a two-game road trip to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas State before returning home to host Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday, Feb. 9.