THE WOODLANDS, Texas. – Playing some of its best basketball at the right time, the Nicholls men's basketball team returns to the court on Saturday afternoon, closing out a two-game Southland Conference road trip in Johnson Coliseum to take on the Sam Houston State Bearkats in Huntsville.
 
The Colonel Countdown pregame show will begin 15 minutes prior to tip off against the Colonels and Bearkats on the all-new ESPN 100.3 FM and KLEB 1600 AM locally in Thibodaux. Links to live video and stats provided by Sam Houston will be on the home page at GeauxColonels.com.
 
Winners of three-straight, the Colonels have won six of their last eight contests and improved to 3-0 in Southland play after defeating the Lamar Cardinals 64-60 Thursday night at the Montagne Center in Beaumont. Nicholls is off to its best start in the Southland since the 1997-98 regular season and tournament title team of that year, as that group won its first 14 league contests to roll into postseason play.
 
With a 6-6 overall record, the Colonels have a .500 mark this far into the season for the first time since 2010, the last time that a men's hoops team finished with a non-losing overall and league record.
 
The calling card of the team this far into the season has been its suffocating defense late into contests, as the Colonels held Lamar to just 28 percent shooting in the second half and one field goal in the final eight minutes of the game. The Cardinals made just one 3-pointer, that coming in the second half, while bullying LU in the paint, on the glass and forcing the Cardinals into 13 turnovers.
 
Although Nicholls played just nine players in the game, the group got a complete team effort in the gutsy performance, with go-to scorers Jeremy Smith and Dantrell Thomas combining for 28 points in the process.
 
Through 12 games this season, Thomas leads the team in several categories including points (189), points per game (15.8), rebounds per game (5.1), assists per game (2.8) and steals per game (1.8). He led the team in scoring for the seventh time this year, while leading the group in rebounding for the fifth time this season.
 
Jeremy Smith, who currently leads the starting five with a 52.8 field goal percentage, scored 13 points and has reached double digits in the last three while hitting that total in nine games this season. Nicholls is 6-2 when Smith records five or more made shots in a game during the year.
 
Off of the bench, Sam McBeath continues to round into form as he helped Nicholls outscore the Lamar reserves 21-0 on Thursday night with his 14 points, four rebounds and a block. McBeath drilled four 3-pointers for the second time in his career, and is fourth in scoring averaging 7.3 points per game in just seven games coming off of injury.
 
The Colonels are hoping to keep this hot run going a little longer, as the matchup on Saturday will be the only regular season tilt for the two sides.
 
After a crazy first weekend, the surprises seemed to continue this week as Nicholls and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, a team that was ineligible from postseason play last year and won just six games, are tied for the league lead with Stephen F. Austin at 3-0, with Sam Houston State a game back at 2-1. Nicholls and TAMCC were both picked near the middle of the pack during the preseason, toward the lower end of teams that could make the conference tournament.
 
Sam Houston State will prove to be another solid test for the Colonels, as they ran their record to 4-0 at home in Johns Coliseum with an 86-81 win over McNeese State on Thursday night. The Bearkats are 10-6 overall on the year, with their only loss in the last three games coming to Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches.
 
The Bearkats are led by Jabari Peters and his 13.3 points per game, as he and Kaheem Ransom and his 11.9 points per game average are the only two Sam Houston State players averaging double figure points. As a team, the Bearkats average 78.9 points per game, looking to live up to its third-place prediction at the start of the season.
 
Nicholls won both meetings against SHSU last season, which included a thrilling overtime victory at home, before narrowly escaping Huntsville with a win in the rematch. The two wins snapped a four-game losing skid to the Bearkats before the start of the year, as Sam Houston still owns the series advantage with 27 wins to Nicholls' 22.
 
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
TV: None
Radio: ESPN 100.3 FM, KLEB 1600 AM
Broadcast Team: Mike Wagenheim (play-by-play)
Live Stats: www.GoBearkats.com