Final Stats Box Score and Play-by-Play

HAMMOND, La. - The Nicholls State University men's basketball team (14-13, 8-8 Southland Conference) tied a school record by clinching its third consecutive trip to the Southland Conference Tournament on Saturday, despite falling in the regular seasons finale at Southeastern Louisiana (15-13, 9-7 Southland Conference) by a score of 50-43 on Saturday.

The Colonels entered the week needing either a win over the Lions, or a loss coupled with either a win by McNeese State over Lamar or Texas-Arlington over Texas-San Antonio to clinch their third straight postseason appearance.  Nicholls wound up falling victim to a Southeastern attack that saw nine Lions put their names in the scoring column, and an SLU defense that limited Nicholls to 35 percent shooting and forced 17 Colonel turnovers on the day. 

Nicholls got a game-high 15 points from senior forward Anatoly Bose, the ninth-leading scorer in the nation, and ten points from freshman guard Dantrell Thomas.  However, only four other Colonels put their names in the scoring column in a hotly contested defensive struggle against the Lions that saw three tie scores and seven lead changes.  Southeastern was led by 14 points from Brandon Fortenberry and points from eight other Lion players.

Fortuantely, for the Colonels, Nicholls got some help from McNeese State as the Cowboys claimed a 92-74 win over Lamar to clinch a regular season championship for the Cowboys and avoid a Nicholls-Lamar tie for the eighth and final seed to the conference tournament.  The Colonels had a chance at a higher seed if UT Arlington was able to pick up a win over UTSA, but the Roadrunners prevailed in a 68-63 decision to improve their league record to 9-7 and place themselves ahead of the Colonels in the seeding.

The 2010-11 Colonels survived the closest regular season conference race in the nation to tie a school record with the program's third consecutive postseason tournament appearance, a feat first accomplished between the 1998-99 and 2000-01 seasons.

For the second consecutive year, the Colonels will be the No. 8 seed at the league tournament, the 2009-10 Colonels clinched the No. 8 seed at the league meet, nearly upsetting top seeded and eventual tournament champion Sam Houston State in the first round.

This year, the Colonels will square off against the regular season champion McNeese State Cowboys on Wednesday in day one of the tournament.  Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.