Final Stats HAMMOND, La. – After four ties and two lead changes in the first half, The Nicholls State University men's basketball team fell behind by double-digits to Southeastern Louisiana and was never able to recover as the Lions held on for the 70-65 win over the Colonels Saturday afternoon at the University Center in Hammond.

The loss drops Nicholls to 3-11 on the year and 2-2 in Southland Conference play, while SLU moves to 5-9 and 3-1.

Nicholls fell behind by as many as 13 points in the second half, and for most of the period could not get any closer than eight or nine points. That was until the final five minutes when the Colonels finally got some offensive production from players other than Jeremy Smith and Fred Hunter as Dantrell Thomas scored all 14 of his points late in the game after accumulating four fouls and sitting out most of the first.

Hunter led the way with his game-high 22 points and 13 rebounds scoring 14 in the second on 4-of-5 shooting, netting his fourth double-double of the season and having one in back-to-back games for the first time in his career. Smith finished the game making a career and game-high nine shots from the field, grabbing five rebounds.

With the score 56-52, the Lions went on a 6-0 run to push the lead back to ten points, but the Colonels once again rallied to make the game close after outscoring Southeastern 11-2 to come within three points, and eventually one point after a Thomas layup and foul made the score 64-63.

Thomas missed the subsequent free throw and a Southeastern jumper by Antonnio Benton on the ensuing possession turned into a four-point swing for the Lions as they went up 68-63. Smith netted his career-high 19th point on a layup with 11 seconds left in the game to make it a three-point contest, but Southeastern nailed two more free throws to go back up five with only a  handful of seconds remaining and held on for the win.

In the first six minutes of the first half, both teams combined for 15 points as the Colonels held a slim 8-7 lead over the Lions. After that point it was all Southeastern as the Lions went on to outscore the Colonels 18-6 over the next five minutes, including a 9-1 run with the score 17-13 to jump out to an 11-point, 25-14 lead.

Powered by the play of Hunter and Smith, the Colonels salvaged the period and went into the halftime break trailing the Lions 33-25. The duo combined for 18 of Nicholls' first-half points, with Smith chipping in ten and Hunter eight, as they were just two of four total players to score for the Colonels in the period.

Up 25-16 and charging, The Lions couldn't stop an 11-4 Nicholls run to pull within four points with less than a minute remaining in the half, but scored the last four points to close out the half. SLU got eight points from six Colonel turnovers, but went 10-of-12 at the line and got nine points from the bench.

Nicholls went on to outscore the Lions 42-24 in the paint, outrebounding its second consecutive opponent 33-31, but the Lions turned 12 Colonel turnovers into 16 points, while holding a 10-9 advantage in second half points and 18-3 mark in bench points.

Each team went to the free throw line over 20 times in the game, as the Lions converted 22-of-28 at the charity stripe, while the Colonels were 16-of-22. Nicholls hit its first and only 3-pointer of the game in the second half, as the Lions were 4-of-13, hitting three in the second period.

The Colonels close out their four-game conference road swing next weekend, beginning on Thursday as team takes on Northwestern State in Natchitoches. The game will be televised live on ESPN3.