Final Stats Nicholls-ULM Box Score

MONROE, La. – In the first 20 minutes, the Nicholls men's basketball team followed the hot hand of freshman Trevon Lewis, but in the last five minutes when the Colonels needed it sophomore Dantrell Thomas scored nine big points for the Colonels and pushed Nicholls to the 82-70 win over the ULM Warhawks Monday night in Monroe.

Thomas, who was not even supposed to play in Monday night's game, came off the bench to spark the Colonels (3-6), and did not miss a shot from the field (2-of-2) or free throw (5-of-5) in the crucial final minutes of the game.

“That's the beauty of working with young people, because there are times when they will just amaze you,” head coach J.P. Piper said. “To come out and play like we did tonight is huge for the maturation of our team going forward into the rest of the season.”

Lewis needed to take only 14 shots to lead all scorers with 25 points on the night, hitting nine to lead the Colonels to go along with his nine boards, two blocks and two steals, followed by Bryan Hammond who scored 18, three days after scoring 20 in the win over Loyola last Friday.

After giving up 12, 3-pointers and 62-percent shooting in their first meeting, Nicholls held ULM (1-9) to just 38-percent in the second meeting while finishing the night posting a 50-percent clip as a group, including  57-percent in the second half alone.

Looking to reverse the trend of what happened in the first game, the Colonels led by as many as 18 points with four minutes left in the first period, at one point making half of the shots they took before finishing with a 45-percent clip in the period.

Nicholls began the game going on an 8-0 run while pushing the tempo to their liking. Lewis played could not be contained by the Warhawk defense as he hit eight of his shots in the period, including a 3-pointer.

Coming off of his 20-point performance the night before, Hammond stepped up after Shane Rillieux got two quick fouls in the period, dishing out three assists and running from the point. The team got solid play from the reserves that played in the half, including getting quality minutes from Jeremy Smith who provided five points off of the bench, finishing with nine on the night.

ULM couldn't find any rhythm offensively as they missed 23 shots in the half and made only two 3-pointers in the period. Although the Warhawks were able to claw within 13 of the Colonels at the break, the 11-0 run Nicholls went on from the 7:42 mark to the 2:22 mark gave Nicholls a decided advantage early.

The Colonels will hit the floor again tomorrow taking on the Texas Longhorns on the Longhorn Network with tipoff set for 7:15 p.m. in Austin.