Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team cut a 20-point Stephen F. Austin lead to just 11 late in the second half Thursday night, but by then it was too late as the Lumberjacks shot 53 percent from the field, making 6-of-12 shots from behind the 3-point line to earn a 63-51 win over the Colonels in Stopher Gym.

With the loss the Colonels fell to 6-16 on the year and 5-7 in conference play, while league-leading Stephen F. Austin improved its record to 21-2 and 12-1. Nicholls has now lost its last four-straight dating back to January, dropping the last two at home to Southeastern Louisiana last Saturday and tonight to the Lumberjacks with Northwestern State coming to Thibodaux on Saturday.

Fred Hunter led all players with 20 points on the night on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and 10-for-13 from the free throw line. It was the senior's fourth consecutive 20-plus point contest in a row, as the Denton, Texas native has 11 games this season with at least 20. JaMarkus Horace earned his fourth start of the year and finished with ten points, tying for the game high in rebounds with six along with Hunter.

Coming in with the nation's stingiest defense, Stephen F. Austin held the Colonels to a respectable 44-percent clip from the floor, but only mustered 36 shots in the entire contest with nine made field goals in the first half and seven in the second. For the second time this season Nicholls was held to just one made 3-point field goal, finishing 1-for-8 from beyond the arc.

The Lumberjacks took a 39-27 lead into the halftime break, on the back of a 67-percent barrage in the first half, drilling 14 shots from the field and four 3-pointers. SFA came back down to Earth in the second making just 10-of-24 shots, but still finished the game making 24-of-45, with a 6-for-12 night from three. Taylor Smith was one of three SFA players to finish the game in double figures, scoring 17 points, missing just two shots on the night.

Down 14-8, Nicholls went on a five point swing to pull within one after a Hunter made basket, free throw and Dantrell Thomas layup made the score 14-13 with 12:16 left in the first half. That one-point deficit was the last time the Colonels came within single digits of the Lumberjacks for the rest of the game, as Stephen F. Austin closed out the half outscoring Nicholls 25-14 over the last 10:51 to go up 12, then going on a 19-11 run taking up 13:37 of the second half to take its largest lead of the game up 20, 58-38.

The Colonels went on its largest run of the game with 4:33 left, going on a 7-0 run in the midst of a 13-5 scoring push over the last five minutes of the game to pull the team within ten points with less than a minute remaining, as SFA held on to the ball for the final seconds to close out the win. Nicholls shot 14 free throws in the second half, and when added to the first half gave the Colonels an 18-for-26 night at the charity stripe, as Stephen F. Austin was 9-for-10 and took just two in the final half.

Nicholls will close out its three-game home stand on Saturday against Northwestern State at 4 p.m. in Stopher Gym.