Final Stats LOGAN, Utah. – Against Utah State last night, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team battled for all of the final 20 minutes of the contest and pushed the Aggies to the brink. Unfortunately, the Colonels may have used all of its energy in the comeback attempt yesterday as Nicholls struggled to find any momentum against Southern Illinois on Friday and fell to the Salukis 65-53 in game two of the World Vision Challenge.

The loss drops the Colonels to 1-7 on the season, extending its season-long losing streak to five games.

Up just seven at the half, Southern Illinois (7-3) went on an 18-8 run to go up 49-32, eventually leading by as many as 19 points just minutes later. But the lead never seemed insurmountable for the Colonels, as the team shot better overall in the half, over 50 percent, cutting the lead to eight points with less than three minutes left in the game.

But the edge in the game came on the glass, where the Salukis outrebounded the Colonels 42-29, and scored 42 points in the paint and got 20 second chance point opportunities.

Fred Hunter led the Colonels with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting, followed by Dantrell Thomas who scored in 13 points, nine in the second half, and made 5-of-6 free throws on the evening.

Nicholls had to recover from another tough first half of shooting, making nearly double the shots in the second than it did in the first to finish with a 36-percent clip. Southern Illinois was 24-of-58 from the field on the night, and just 2-of-14 from behind the 3-point line.

Nicholls was hoping to get off to a better start against the Salukis on Friday, but the Colonels' offensive struggles in the first half continued as the team shot just above 25 percent in the period with just six made shots from the field. Still, the Colonels were able to keep the game somewhat close by making 10-of-13 free throws to go into the break trailing 31-24.

After taking its only lead of the half going up 5-2, Southern Illinois began attacking the Colonels defense and went on to outscore the Colonels 22-10 over the next 12 minutes to take a 24-15 lead late into the period. The Saluki offense began to slow down as the Colonels began to slowly chip away at the lead, getting just seven more points over the final 6:30 of the half.

Neither team was effective from the field, but Southern Illinois took nine 3-pointers in the period, making just one, but made 11 shots and got 18 points in the paint and six second chance points on seven offensive rebounds.

Each team finished with 13 turnovers, and both were nearly even in points off of them with SIU getting 13 and Nicholls getting 12. Each bench got 15 points worth of production, as Nicholls went 5-of-9 off the pine while the Salukis were 6-for-13.

Southern Illinois had both of its leading scorers finish with double-doubles, led by Desmar Jackson's 21 points and 12 boards, followed by Jeff Early's ten each.

Nicholls will close the World Vision Challenge on Saturday afternoon, playing the UC Davis Aggies at 6:30 p.m.