Thibodaux, La. – After pulling out a thrilling victory on Thursday night, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team will host one of the biggest games in recent memory on Saturday afternoon, taking on the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders at 3:30 p.m. in Thibodaux.
 
The contest against the Islanders will begin at 3:30 p.m. or 30 minutes after the completion of the women's game if necessary against TAMCC which begins at 1 p.m. in Thibodaux, as fans can purchase their tickets online at NichollsTickets.com for $7. For fans unable to make the game, live stats and video will be provided at GeauxColonels.com and the Nicholls Athletics mobile apps, with the game being aired on the all-new ESPN 100.3 FM and KLEB 1600 AM.
 
Saturday's battle will feature two impressive streaks by two teams off to surprising starts in Southland Conference play, as Nicholls is looking to keep its perfect home record in 2013-14 intact while A&M-Corpus Christi has been a fearsome opponent on the road and has yet to be beaten in three tries in games away from The Island. Both teams are 4-1 in league play, making the contest an early battle for placing among the league leaders.
 
Returning home after splitting a two-game road trip the previous week, the Colonels and Houston Baptist Huskies went down to the wire on Thursday night, coming down to an exciting final minute that saw the home side go up by four before HBU scored four straight to tie the game at 64 to set up an exciting finish with a game-winning layup by Sam McBeath. Pedro Maciel, who scored a season-high seven points in the win, found McBeath under the basket as HBU never got an opportunity to hold for the final shot.
 
The win pushed the Colonels to 5-0 at home, matching a feat that hasn't been done since 2010-11 where the Colonels won their first nine games that season. Nicholls is 7-0 when leading at halftime this year, as the squad took a slim, 34-29 lead into the break against the Huskies. Although the visitors outscored the Colonels 35-33 in the final 20 minutes, the team improved to 4-0 when holding opponents to 69 or less points in a game this year.
 
Another huge aspect of the game that helped the Colonels overcome the late rally by HBU was converting on Husky miscues to the tune of 30 points off of 22 Houston Baptist turnovers. At 6-2 when the opponent has more turnovers than they do, Nicholls is 72^nd in the nation in turnover margin at +2.0, while 45^th in the country in total turnovers.
 
Normally getting the bulk of its offensive production from two players, the Colonels were fairly balanced against HBU, getting led in scoring by T.J. Carpenter and Shane Rillieux. Carpenter scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half, while Rillieux scored all 12 of his in the final period, as the duo combined to power a 10-0 run out of the gate in the first three minutes of the second to give the Colonels its largest lead of the game at 14 points. Carpenter hit three 3-pointers in the game, and now has six games this season with at least that many in a contest, and led the team in rebounding for the second consecutive game with a season-high six. Nicholls had all five starters earn at least five points in the game, although Dantrell Thomas' streak of double-digit games ended at nine as he fouled out for the third time this season.
 
Sam McBeath earned his first start since 2012 and scored eight points with an assist, block and two steals in 23 minutes, while the bench chipped in 21 points led by Maciel's seven. Luke Doyle scored six points thanks to two 3-pointers, as the freshman from Florida has hit at least two in each of the last pair of games.
 
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has been one of the early surprises of the league season so far, as the Islanders have won one more game than last year and is one win away from tying its entire conference win total from last season as well. The Islanders were forced to sit out of the postseason last year due to APR penalties, but did cause a couple of upsets for teams late in the season. The Islanders are led by John Jordan who is averaging 17.2 points per game in conference play and 15.8 overall on the season, as the Islanders are scoring on average 80.0 points per game against league competition.
 
Nicholls has won three of the last four against TAMCC, and owns the series by a one-game advantage, 8-7.  
 
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
TV: None
Radio: ESPN 100.3 FM, KLEB 1600 AM
Broadcast Team: Mike Wagenheim (play-by-play)
Live Stats: www.GeauxColonels.com