Final Stats UCA-Nicholls Box Score

Thibodaux, La. – After a first half where there were six ties, the Nicholls men's basketball team needed a spark going into halftime. Trailing by two with less than 4:30 remaining in the half, the Colonels slammed home two of their six dunks on the night to spark a 12-2 run over the course of the next 4 minutes between the first and second period to fly past the University of Central Arkansas for good, defeating the Bears 80-70 Wednesday night in Thibodaux.

The win by the Colonels (9-17, 5-8 SLC) keeps the momentum strong for a berth in the conference tournament in March, as the team had a lock on the eighth seed heading into tonight's game.

Dantrell Thomas led the Colonels with 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting on the night, followed by Trevon Lewis' 17 off of the bench. Bryan Hammond, who only scored three points in the game, dished out a career-high and season best eight assists on the night, as the Colonels had assists on over half of their 30 made shots in the game.

Nicholls and the Bears played virtually even basketball for the first 20 minutes of the game, as points seemed to be tough to come by, a far cry from the first meeting between the two as UCA (7-19, 2-12 SLC) stormed out of the gate fast and the Colonels couldn't catch up.

There were eight lead changes in the first period of Wednesday's game, before the Colonels took the lead going into the break 30-28 on dunks by Thomas and Lewis, as each team shot around 40-percent in the half with very few fouls for either side.

Hoping to stifle the Colonels into an excess of turnovers by using a full-court press, the Colonels were poised and ready for the challenge, finishing the game with 12 points in transition, while scoring 17 points off of 16 UCA turnovers.

Nicholls led by as many as 15 points toward the end of the game, as the Bears were hoping the 3-point shot would be able to keep the game close, but the 27 points the Bears got from 3-pointers in the second period would be no match for the 36 points the Colonels scored in the paint in the half and 52-16 edge on points in the lane on the night.

In one of their most dominating performances on the glass this year, the Colonels reeled in 40 rebounds on the night to UCA's 28, grabbing 17 offensive boards in the process, as 11 came from Sam McBeath and Jeremy Smith combined. The Colonels turned that into 14 second-chance point opportunities.

With the game getting out of reach for the Bears, the Colonels got to the line 25 times to UCA's 14, making 16 of their shots from the charity stripe on the evening, with 11 coming in the second half.

Behind Thomas and Lewis, the Colonels spread the wealth and got key play from the entire lineup that played as Smith scored 14 points on the night, while McBeath, Shane Rillieux and Chris Talkington combined to chip in 22 points.

The Colonels will now hit the road for their next two, beginning with a tough game in Lake Charles against the division-leading McNeese Cowboys Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.