Final Stats CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team got 25 points and nine rebounds from senior guard Fred Hunter on Saturday night, but it wasn't enough as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi scored 45 second-half points and shot nearly 70 percent from the field in the last 20 minutes to defeat the Colonels 68-64 at the American Bank Center.

With the loss the Colonels fall to 8-19 on the season and 7-9 in league play, squandering an opportunity to tie Southeastern Louisiana for fourth place in the league standings after its loss to Sam Houston State earlier on Saturday. The Islanders improve to 6-21 and 5-11 in the league, winning back-to-back games for the second time this year.

Trailing 52-48 with less than nine minutes remaining in the game, the Colonels went on a 9-0 run to take a 57-52 lead, which spanned over two minutes to seemingly push Nicholls to its second consecutive road victory for the first time all season. Unfortunately for the Colonels, Corpus Christi outscored Nicholls 16-7 over the final 5:44 of the contest, including breaking a 64-all tie with a four-point swing that put Islanders up for good in the final minute. It was the 13th time the lead changed hands on the evening, which also saw 11 ties between the two sides over the course of the night.

Hunter had ten points in the first half, and finished a rebound shy of a second night with a double-double as he led all players with his 13th 20-plus point game of the season. Plagued with foul trouble for most of the night, Dantrell Thomas still managed to score 12 points on Saturday, with Linden Smith-Hyde scoring a season-high ten off of the bench, making every shot he took on the evening going 3-for-3 from the field, 2-for-3 from behind the 3-point line and 2-for-2 from the free throw line.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Will Nelson didn't earn the start for the Islanders but had the biggest impact on the game's outcome as the 6-6 forward had a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds on 9-of-10 shooting from the field. Johnathan Jordan was the only other Corpus Christi player to score in double figures with 16 points, dishing out nine assists in the win.

The Islanders had 18 made field goals in the second half, finishing with a 69.2 percentage in the second half to end the game with a 51.9-percent clip for the contest. Just as they did against Sam Houston State the night before, the Colonels struggled out of the gate to open the game but managed to go into halftime with a slim two-point lead up 25-23. Although Nicholls made just seven shots to AMCC's ten, Nicholls went to the line 13 times, making eight while the Islanders were just 3-for-4 from the charity stripe.

The benches for both team stepped up big for their respective teams tonight, as along with Smith-Hyde's ten, the Colonels got six points from Pedro Maciel on two 3-pointers and three points from Amin Torres. The reserves would play a major role in the game as Shane Rillieux played just 22 minutes fighting through an ankle injury, while T.J. Carpenter was 0-8 from the field and 0-5 from three while still grabbing four rebounds and handing out three assists.

Each team turned the ball over 14 times on Saturday night, finishing even with 19 points off of turnovers and just two fast break points for each side. The Islanders outscored the Colonels 38-32 in points in the paint, while Nicholls grabbed ten of its 29 points offensively to score an 11-7 advantage in second chance points.

Nicholls closes out the regular season at home next weekend, first taking on the Lamar Cardinals on Thursday night in Thibodaux.