Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – With a 61-58 lead with less than eight minutes remaining in the second half, the Nicholls men's basketball team faltered late, allowing the visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders to close the game on a 15-6 run to put the game away as the Colonels fell to the visitors 70-67 Saturday afternoon in Thibodaux.

Leading by as many as five points after a Luke Doyle 3-pointer made the score 56-51, Nicholls (7-8, 4-2 SLC) went on to outscore the Islanders (8-11, 5-1) 8-4 over the next three-plus minutes, capped by a T.J. Carpenter three, to take a six-point advantage into the final 10 minutes leading 61-55.

However, the Colonels would be unable to keep that momentum going for the rest of the contest, making just three shots from the field for the rest of the game, while committing four turnovers in the process. A&M-Corpus Christi during this same time was 5-for-11 from the field, connecting on two big 3-pointers, hitting one that pulled the Islanders within three with 7:42 left and then drilling another with 1:56 left to extend their lead to five points.

Redshirt senior guard Jeremy Smith was the big catalyst for the team on the day, leading a trio of scorers in double figures with his game-high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Smith scored eight of his 17 in the second half, going 4-for-5 in each period to go along with his two rebounds and two assists.

Dantrell Thomas and T.J. Carpenter each scored 11 on Saturday, with Carpenter connecting on three 3-pointers, while Thomas was 7-for-8 from the free throw line with seven rebounds and three assists. For the second consecutive game the Colonels got a balanced attack from the starting five, as Sam McBeath and Shane Rillieux each chipped in with nine.

The two teams went into the locker room tied at 39 after a hot-shooting first half that had Nicholls go 14-for-28 from the field while AMCC was 12-for-22. The Colonels would go on to outshoot the Islanders on the day, finishing with a 45 percent clip from the floor after banking 10 shots in the final 20 minutes. Nicholls made eight 3-pointers against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, but the team tailed off in the end making just two in the second half after drilling six in the first.

The Colonels held the Islanders ten points below their conference average of 80 points per game, also holding leading scorer John Jordan to 13 points on 2-of-10 shooting which are two below his regular season average. Still, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi had four players finish with double figure points, and outscored the Nicholls bench 36-10 as Jake Kocher tied for the team lead with 13 points in 27 minutes of action off of the pine. Rashawn Thomas scored 11 for AMCC, on a near perfect 5-for-6 night from the field.

The first five minutes of the game resembled a heavyweight title fight, as each side traded consecutive blows that led to the first half draw between the two sides. While the Colonels earned two more buckets than A&M-Corpus Christi, the Islanders attacked the Colonels and were in the double bonus for the final eight minutes of the period. AMCC was 13-for-16 in the first half, as that number came down drastically in the second, but the Islanders were still nearly automatic from the charity stripe going 20-for-25 on the night while Nicholls was 11-for-14.

After five ties and three lead changes in the opening period, the teams fought through seven more draws and three more breakaways in the final period.

The defense of the Colonels forced the Islanders into six turnovers to just two for the home side, but in the second half that all changed as Nicholls turned over the ball eight times to AMCC's four, earning 13 points off of those miscues in the final stanza to outpace Nicholls 16-14 in points off turnovers.

Nicholls will be back in action on Tuesday night, traveling to Lake Charles to take on the McNeese State Cowboys on CSN Houston.