THIBODAUX - The Nicholls State University men's basketball team (12-11, 6-6 Southland Conference) will look to solidify their place in the tightest conference race in the country when the Colonels open a two-game road trip on Wednesday with a trip to Central Arkansas (5-20, 1-11 Southland Conference) looking for a season sweep of the Bears.

The Colonels begin the week in a four-way tie for the seventh of eight Southland Conference Tournament seeds.  With just four regular season games left, the 2011 Southland Conference race is the tightest of any conference race in division one.  The week begins with the top ten teams in the league separated by just 2.0 games and only one of the conference's 12 teams having been eliminated from postseason contention.

Texas State and McNeese State are currently tied for the No. 1 seed with identical 8-4 Southland Conference records.  They are followed by a four-way tie for the No. 3 seed as Northwestern State, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State and Texas-Arlignton sharing 7-5 league records.  That group is followed by another four-team logjam with Nicholls, Southeastern Louisiana, Lamar and Texas-San Antonio all tied with 6-6 records in league play.

Based on the Southland Conference's tie breakers, if the season ended today, Southeastern Louisiana would be awarded the No. 7 seed and the Colonels would earn the eighth and final seed based on the two teams' records against their Southland Conference East Division opponents.  However, the Colonels could improve their standing with a strong finish in the final four regular season games of the year.

Up first is Central Arkansas, the only team to be eliminated from the Southland Conference Tournament race.  However, the Bears have proven to be a dangerous team at times.  UCA claimed a 62-59 win at home over Southeastern Louisiana for their first (so far only) conference win of the year, back on Jan. 26. 

The Bears also put a scare into the Colonels back on Jan. 19 in the first match up between the two schools.  UCA trailed just 30-27 at halftime after the Bears took advantage of early foul trouble for Nicholls' Anatoly Bose.  The top scorer in the conference, and ninth best scorer in the nation, went to the bench after eight first half minutes with a pair of fouls.

Nicholls pulled away in the second half as Colonel junior Fred Hunter turned in a game-high 21 and Bose added 18 en route to a 70-51 win over the Bears.  The Colonels will look to repeat the success they found against the Bears in their first matchup, however, Nicholls will continue to have to find a way to fill the void left by a season-ending knee injury sustained by Hunter on Feb. 8.

Hunter was the team's top rebounder, second leading scorer, and ranked 19th in the nation in field goal percentage at the time of his injury.  After losing the first two games without Hunter in the lineup, Nicholls got back on track with a 54-52 victory over Texas-San Antonio on Saturday.

Nicholls can still rely on one of the most consistent scoring threats in the nation in the form of Bose.  The Sydney, Australia native leads the Southland Conference and ranks ninth nationally with a 21.9 point/game average.  Bose has racked up 45 career 20-point games and passed former Colonel Johnny Hall for sole possession of third place on the school scoring list in his last contest.  With four regular season games left in his college career, Bose needs 67 points to reach the 2,000 career point mark, which would make him just the third Colonel ever to reach that plateau.

Tipoff between the Colonels and Bears is set for 7 p.m. at the Farris Center in Conway, Ark.  The game can be heard in the New Orleans-Houma-Thibodaux area on the Colonel Sports Radio Network, including KLRZ 100.3 FM and KLEB 1600 AM.  Following their matchup with the Bears, Nicholls heads to McNeese State to take on the Cowboys on Saturday before returning home for the 2011 home court finale against Norhtwestern State on March 2.