THIBODAUX, La. – Coming off of back-to-back wins over the weekend, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team heads out for its longest road trip of the year beginning on Thursday, taking on the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at 7:30 p.m. in Tulsa.
 
The game begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Mabee Center, and will be televised live on Fox College Sports which is available to AT&T U-Verse, Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers. It's the second time the team will have a game televised this season, with one more remaining at home on Feb. 15.
 
The Colonels went 2-0 last weekend, defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday, while rallying to force overtime to defeat the Sam Houston State Bearkats 70-67. The wins improved Nicholls' record to 6-12 on the season and 5-3 in conference play, as the conference record is the best for the Colonels since the 2010-11 season. It was the first instance of back-to-back conference wins since the team pulled off that feat twice last season.
 
Nicholls went to overtime in a game just once last season, but in the last five years the team has played in 12 overtime games and is 5-7 in those contests. Last year the Colonels fell to Stephen F. Austin on the road in the only matchup for the two teams that year.
 
The squad has used a different starting lineup in each of the past three games, but is still getting its consistency from its go-to players, as Dantrell Thomas averaged 15 points in the two games, including closing out the Sam Houston State game by tying the game with 22 seconds left and making all seven of his free throw attempts in the second half and overtime combined. He's led the team in scoring four times this year and rebounding three times after pulling down nine against the Bearkats.
 
The Colonels have been dealing with injuries all season after losing Lachlan Prest and Sam McBeath, and Pedro Maciel who started two games before spraining his ankle against the Islanders. Fortunately, the Colonels were able to get freshman 3-point specialist T.J. Carpenter back after a two-game absence due to an injured shoulder against the Bearkats and showed no signs of rust playing in a season-high 38 minutes, drilling three 3-pointers and scoring 11 points.
 
Nicholls is getting its longest trip of the year out of the way first heading to Tulsa for the third time in team history to play the Golden Eagles on Thursday night. It's the final regular season meeting against the Golden Eagles, as ORU defeated Nicholls in the first game of the series back in January, defeating Nicholls 76-63. The Golden Eagles have lost just once since that meeting, to Stephen F. Austin, but is tied with the Lumberjacks atop the league standings after SFA lost to Northwestern State on Saturday.
 
Oral Roberts still boasts the league's leading scorer in Warren Niles at 19 points per game, but has gotten solid play from the other two Golden Eagles scoring in double-figures this season in Damen Bell-Holter and Shawn Glover. Bell-Holter is averaging a double-double in Southland play, averaging more than Niles with over 20 points per game, while Glover scored 24 points in both games last weekend for ORU.
 
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: Fox College Sports (Check local listings for channel number)
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
Live Stats: www.orugoldenagles.com