THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team heads to the Bluff City this weekend for a televised matchup against No. 11-ranked Memphis at 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the FedEx Forum.
 
The game will be televised by SportSouth, as well as online by ESPN3, with Pete Pranica and Hank McDowell on the call, with the radio broadcast beginning 15 minutes prior to the start of the contest with The Colonel Countdown pregame show.
 
Nicholls fell to 0-3 on the year after suffering a 78-62 loss to the Troy Trojans on Tuesday night in Trojan Arena, pulling within five points of the home team with less than five minutes remaining. However, the Colonels were unable to get any closer as the offense stalled allowing the Trojans to go on a 12-0 run to close the game and pull away for good.
 
The Colonels have put together better efforts the last two contests, pushing North Texas to the brink and nearly pulling off the upset against Troy, but the squad has been unable to keep opposing teams from getting to the free throw line, as teams have taken 36 or more free throws in each of the first three games this season, with Auburn being the only team that has not made at least 30 in those games.
 
Even with three losses, Nicholls has not trailed by much going into halftime as on average they are behind by just six points after 20 minutes of play, but by the end of the game the opposing side has pulled away and outscored the Colonels by nearly ten points in the second due to the large number of free throws taken.
 
For the first time this season the Colonels had three players finish in double figure scoring on the night, getting the second consecutive double-digit game out of Dantrell Thomas who scored 14 points and grabbed a team season high eight rebounds against Troy, followed by Jeremy Smith who scored 13 with five rebounds. The two combined to register over 40 percent of the team's scoring and rebounding on the night.
 
Nicholls also got a big night from junior guard Shane Rillieux, who played in a team season-best 37 minutes, scoring 11 points and going 4-of-6 from the free throw line. During the 6-0 run that helped cut the Troy deficit from 11 points to just five, Rillieux had four of those points and when included with his only 3-pointer of the night at the 8:23 mark, scored seven points in four minutes.
 
The Memphis Tigers moved up two spots in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Poll to No. 11 early in the week and went into a highly touted matchup against Oklahoma State on Tuesday, falling to the Cowboys in Stillwater 101-80 to sit at 1-1 entering the matchup. Memphis is the first of two likely games against ranked teams, as Indiana is No. 22 in the coaches poll.
 
Memphis is led by Josh Pastner who is in his fifth year leading the Tigers with an overall record of 107-35 which is sixth all-time in team history. He is three away from moving up to fifth all time.
 
The Tigers are averaging 87.5 points per game as a group, with four players scoring in double figures led by Nick King who is scoring 18 a game off of the bench. King also leads Memphis in rebounding with nearly seven per outing.
 
This is the second-ever meeting between Nicholls and Memphis, with the last coming in December, 1994 with the Tigers winning 92-72.
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
TV: SportSouth
Broadcast Team: Pete Pranica (play-by-play), Hank McDowell (color)
Internet Stream: ESPN3
Radio: KLRZ 100.3 FM, KLEB 1600 AM
Broadcast Team: Mike Wagenheim (play-by-play)
Live Stats: www.GoTigersGo.com