THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team continues Southland Conference play on Thursday night, taking on the Northwestern State Demons at 7:30 p.m. in Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches.
 
The game will be a part of a live, televised doubleheader with the men and women on ESPN3.com, with Lyn Rollins providing play-by-play and legendary coach Van Chancellor as the game's analyst. This is the first of two televised games for the men this year, as the Feb. 14 game against Stephen F. Austin in Thibodaux will also be a part of Southland Conference television package this season.
 
Nicholls closes the final two games of a four-game conference road swing this weekend, and will be looking to get another notch in the win column to stay in the middle of the pack in the league standings, as the team is currently sixth overall.
 
The Colonels are coming off of a close loss to the Southeastern Louisiana Lions last Saturday, 70-65, dropping to 3-11 on the season and 2-2 in Southland play. After a back-and-forth affair early, The Colonels trailed going into the locker room and put together a serious run late in the game, pulling within a single point, as the Lions were able to put the game away at the free throw line. So far this season, Nicholls is 0-10 when trailing at the break while 3-1 when holding a lead after 20 minutes.
 
However, the Colonels got outstanding play from their three upperclassmen in Fred Hunter, Dantrell Thomas and Jeremy Smith on the night, as the three combined for 55 of Nicholls' 65 in the game. Hunter earned a double-double in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, and fourth one this season, on Saturday, scoring 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.
 
In starting his fifth game of the season, Smith scored a career-high 19 points against the Lions, making nine shots from the field which is the most for the redshirt junior from New Orleans in a game. In his last four starts, Smith is averaging over 12 points and four rebounds per game, hitting 50 percent of his shots from the field on the season.
 
Plagued with foul trouble for most of the game, Thomas secured his seventh double-digit scoring game of the season after scoring 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting, as all of his points came in the final eight minutes of the game. The junior also had four assists in the game as well, giving him four games this season with at least that amount as he averages over 3.5 assists per game.
 
Outside of Hunter, Smith and Thomas, Shane Rillieux and JaMarkus Horace were the only other Nicholls player to score for the team, as T.J. Carpenter was held scoreless for the first time in his young career, while Amin Torres, the team's leading scorer off the bench, was held without a point for the second-straight game. The Colonel bench was outscored 18-3, as Horace's made basket and free throw were the only points from the reserves.
 
The team was also held to an abysmal 9.1-percent, 1-for-11 night from behind the 3-point line, although it extended the Colonels' streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer to 104. The last time the team was held to just one 3-pointer in a game was in 2011 against Central Arkansas on Jan. 19, and the last time Nicholls didn't make a shot from beyond the arc in a game was in 2009 against UTSA.
 
The Colonels will face a daunting task on Thursday night, trying to slow down a Northwestern State offense that is second in the country in scoring, averaging 84 points per game this season. At 10-5 on the year, the Demons have just one loss in conference play so far, and is a perfect 7-0 at home in Prather Coliseum.
 
The Demons have four players scoring in double figures this season, led by DeQuan Hicks' team-leading 14.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. As a team, Northwestern State is outscoring its opponents by over 12 points per contest, and defensively has 82 blocks on the season, with four players having 12 or more blocks on the season.
 
The radio broadcast of the game will begin with the Colonel Countdown pregame show, beginning 15 minutes prior to the start of the contest.
 
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
TV: None
Radio: 100.3 FM KLRZ (Larose, La); 1600 KLEB (Golden Meadow, La.)
Broadcast Team: Mike Wagenheim (play-by-play)
Colonels on the Internet: www.klrzfm.com
Internet Stream: ESPN3 - www.espn3.com
Live Stats: www.nsudemons.com