THIBODAUX, La. – After a couple days to recover following a long trip to Texas, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team returns to action on Tuesday, taking on the Troy Trojans at 7 p.m. in Trojan Arena in Alabama.
 
Nicholls is on the back end of a four-game road swing that will culminate on Saturday afternoon with a meeting against nationally-ranked Memphis at the FedEx Forum, before opening the home schedule against the UTSA Roadrunners three days later on the 26^th.
 
The Colonels are coming off of a tough loss to the North Texas Mean Green last Thursday night, where the team shot 43 percent from the field and scored 42 points in the second half, but ended up losing in The Super Pit, 92-78.
 
Nicholls and North Texas played a thrilling contest that featured 10 ties and 11 lead changes during the 40-minute feature, as the two teams combined for 96 second-half points to the more than 2,000 in attendance that night. However, the Colonels have been plagued by foul trouble as UNT shot nearly 50 free throws on the night and outscored Nicholls 22-9 in the final five minutes of the second period. North Texas also shot over 59 percent in the second half and was 85 percent from the free throw line.
 
Still, the Colonels got a career-night from senior guard Dantrell Thomas, as the Many, La., native scored a game-high 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field with six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Thomas scored 14 points in the first half and 13 in the second en route to his best night in a Colonel uniform, shooting 66 percent from the field, along with making seven free throws on 12 attempts.
 
Not to be outdone, T.J. Carpenter looked like the sharpshooter from last season, scoring 15 of his 17 points off the bench in the second half. The sophomore made five 3-pointers on the night which was a new personal best made from behind the arc before fouling out late in the second half.
 
The undoing for the Colonels has come in the new rules for allowing the game to flow much easier, as the team has committed 60 fouls through the first two games of the season. With that many fouls thus far, it has allowed opponents to shoot at least of 43 free throws per contest and on average convert 33.5 of them.
 
Just like it had last week, Nicholls renews a deep-seeded rivalry with an old foe on Tuesday night in the Troy Trojans, as the two schools are linked back to their Division II days as members of the Gulf South Conference back in the 1970's. This will be the 14^th meeting between the two schools, and the first since the closing of a home-home series that happened in 2000 and 2001. Before that, the last meeting was Feb. 2, 1979, a year before Nicholls made the leap to Division I.
 
Troy is under the direction of first-year head coach Phil Cunningham, who was a 12-year assistant at Mississippi State and spent one year at Western Kentucky before taking the head job in Trojan Country. The Trojans are 1-2 on the year with a win over LaGrange and losses to Ole Miss and UAB.
 
The Trojans are led by guard Hunter Williams, who leads a trio of Troy players who all average double figures with his 14.7 points per game. Williams has earned 10 of the Trojans' 19 3-point field goals on the season, having a 46 percent clip from behind the line.
 
Tuesday night's game will be played in the year-old Trojan Arena which was opened in 2012 to replace Sartain Hall, which opened in 1962. The arena was a $40 million project that now houses the volleyball, basketball and track and field programs, along with holding its commencement exercises.
 
Nicholls holds a 10-3 advantage in all-time meetings against the Trojans, winning six of the last seven contests.
 
The radio broadcast will begin 15 minutes prior to the start of the contest with The Colonel Countdown pregame show.
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
TV: None
Radio: KLRZ 100.3 FM, KLEB 1600 AM
Broadcast Team: Clyde Verdin (play-by-play)
Live Stats: www.TroyTrojans.com