Final Stats LINCOLN, Neb. – After looking lifeless and listless in the first half, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team rallied in the second half to pull within four points of the University of Nebraska in the final minutes before falling to the Cornhuskers 68-59 Saturday afternoon at the Devaney Center in Lincoln.

The loss drops Nicholls to 1-9 on the season, extending the team's losing streak to seven games. Nebraska improves to 9-4 on the year and 7-2 at home.

The largest lead for Nebraska came with 12 minutes left in the second, going up 19 points with the score 49-30 in the Husker favor. But Nicholls cut the lead to just ten with less than four minutes left after going on a 16-7 run spanning nearly six minutes to make the score 56-46.

Nicholls shot 59-percent in the second half alone, nearly tripling the amount of shots the team made in the first half, as Dantrell Thomas scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half on 8-of-19 shooting. Nicholls made four 3-pointers in the half to finish 6-for-22 on the night, contributing to the 12 points for Amin Torres and 11 points for T.J. Carpenter who each had one in the final 10 minutes of the contest.

In the bonus for most of the second, the Huskers kept the Colonels in the game late as Nebraska missed a total of ten free throws which allowed the Colonels to cut the lead even further pulling to within four points twice in the final minute. However, Nebraska finished the night going to the line 33 times and made 20, making all ten the team took in the final minute of the game.

Nebraska had four players finish the game scoring in double figures, led by Brandon Ubel's 18, followed by David Rivers' and Dylan Talley's 12 each and Ray Gallegos' ten.

The Colonels' first-half offensive struggles reared itself again against Nebraska, as Nicholls missed its first eight shots of the game and didn't score until the 14:15 mark of the first on a Jeremy Smith 3-pointer. By the end of the period, Nicholls went into the half trailing the Huskers by 14 points after making just five shots on 20 percent shooting.

Nebraska went on an 8-0 run to open the game, but five quick points had the Colonels down 8-5 as Nebraska stalled a bit offensively. After a four-point swing by the Cornhuskers to go up 12-5, the Colonels scored the next five to pull within two at 12-10 midway through the period. Nicholls would not get any closer for the rest of the half as the Nebraska went on a 13-0 run to jump out to a 15 point lead as they outscored Nicholls 19-10 over the course of the final 8:25.

Smith scored eight of Nicholls' 17 points in the first, hitting both 3-pointers the Colonels had in the period as only four of the ten players that saw action had any points during the first 20 minutes.

The bench early proved to be a factor in how Nicholls finished the game, as the Colonel bench outscored the Huskers 17-14 over the course of the game, as the two teams finished tied in points in the paint with 24 and second chance points with two. Nebraska scored the only two points on fast breaks on the day, and turned nine Nicholls turnovers into 11 points.

The Nicholls men's basketball team returns home on Thursday to open up Southland Conference play against the Central Arkansas Bears at 7:30 p.m.