Final Stats BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For the first ten minutes, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team put a huge scare into the Indiana Hoosiers in Assembly Hall Friday night, but the near capacity home crowd and hot-shooting of the Hoosiers late would be too much for the Colonels to overcome as they fell 79-66.

Going into the break trailing 37-22, the Colonels (3-6) regrouped in a big way to shoot nearly 53 percent in the second half and outscored the Hoosiers (9-3) 44-42 in the final 20 minutes, cutting down an Indiana lead that grew to as many as 22 late in the contest.

After scoring just nine points in the first half, Nicholls senior guard Dantrell Thomas went off down the stretch and scored 15 second-half points to end the night as the game's leading scorer with 24 points on 11 of 16 shooting with a team-high six rebounds. Sam McBeath led the bench scoring for the second consecutive game, chipping in 10 points and two rebounds.

The Hoosiers put together a much better effort to start the second half, going on a 7-3 run not even two minutes into the period to go up 44-25 which was enough of a spark to help Indiana go into the first media timeout leading 44-27.

Although the Colonels would never be able to cut a double-digit lead down to single digits, Nicholls routinely battled to put some pressure on the Indiana starters and reserves not to sleep on defense, including going on a 12-4 run over the final four minutes to finish the game strong.

The on stat that Indiana dominated was hitting their mark of making at least 22 free throws in a contest. The Hoosiers finished 26 for 35 from the charity stripe after the Colonels committed 23 fouls over the course of the game. Indiana's Devin Davis was 6 for 6 from the line, while Indiana's leading scorer Kevin Ferrell was 3 for 4 with 16 total points.

The Colonels started the game about as well as you could have expected for a team that is playing the final game of a long road trip, hitting their first two shots while forcing the Hoosiers into a bevy of turnovers to keep the game close early.

With 14:31 remaining in the first, Nicholls took a 9-7 lead over Indiana on a Sam McBeath layup on a tough move through the lane. Unfortunately, that would be the last bit of solid offense the Colonels would have for a while as the Hoosiers took the lead on a three-point play and eventually went on a 20-7 spanning over eight minutes to go up 30-16 with 3:12 left.

Both teams finished with just nine made shots in the period, but the Hoosiers connected on the only 3-pointer of the game up until that point, going 18 for 24 at the free throw line from 15 Nicholls fouls.

The Colonels grabbed a game-high 12 offensive boards in the loss, finishing with 35 total rebounds to Indiana's 33. However, Nicholls scored 14 second chance points to IU's 13, as well as scoring 42 points in the paint to Indiana's 36. Even as the Hoosiers emptied their bench toward the end of the game, the Colonels still outscored Indiana 25-24 in bench points.

The Colonels will be back in action on Jan. 2, opening Southland Conference play against the New Orleans Privateers in Stopher Gym at 7:30 p.m.