Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team had five players score in double figures and shot 50 percent from the field over the course of the game to defeat the New Orleans Privateers 88-83 Thursday night in the Southland Conference opener for both teams.

With the win the Colonels (4-6, 1-0 SLC) remain undefeated at home and improve to 3-0 and open 2014 with a win, as New Orleans (3-6, 0-1) falls to 1-5 in games away from the Lakefront Arena.

Jeremy Smith scored a season-high 17 points to lead Nicholls on the night, scoring 11 in the first half and finished shooting 6-for-8 from the floor with two rebounds and an assist. Dantrell Thomas shook off early foul trouble and scored 16 in just 17 total minutes of time on the floor, serving as the saving grace for the team at the free throw line making 7-of-10 from the charity stripe to go along with his four assists, three steals and a block.

T.J Carpenter, Amin Torres and J'Dante' Frye capped the double-digit scoring for the Colonels on the night, finishing with ten points each. Frye led the team in rebounds, grabbing five in his 30 minutes of playing time, while Sam McBeath had seven points and was one of four players to grab at least three boards.

Although the Colonels were once again bested by an opponent at the free throw line, Nicholls outworked the Privateers in the categories that counted most, making eight more shots from the field in the game, including five 3-pointers to UNO's one. The Colonels got 42 points in the paint, got 24 points off of 22 Privateer turnovers and got 37 points from the bench.

On Thursday, the two teams set new two-team game highs in program history with 72 personal fouls, 104 free throw attempts and tied the record for most disqualifications with six. In the process, the Colonels set a new team record for fouls in a game with 39, as the 43 attempted free throws by the team are 10 shy of the school record for most in a single game.

With a seven point lead at the halftime break, the game changed quickly as the fouls began to add up for both teams. Not even to the first media timeout of the second half, both teams had committed 12 fouls to bring the contest to a stand-still. Both teams had just three made shots from the field during that stretch, as UNO outscored Nicholls 18-12 over seven minutes after also going 6-for-6 at the free throw line to pull within one of the Colonels at 51-52, the closest the visitors had been since earning its first and only lead of the game four minutes into the first half.

It would not take long for the Colonels to rebound in a hurry as the squad went on an 11-0 run that took 2:32 off of the clock and push the Nicholls lead back to double-digits. It was the biggest run for either team in the game, as Carpenter scored five of the 11 with a layup and 3-pointer, while also getting a three from Luke Doyle during the run.

Although the lead never seemed to be in doubt for much of the rest of the second half, New Orleans put on the pressure and forced the Colonels into 23 fouls in the final 20 minutes and shot 38 of their 61 total free throws during that time to finish 42-for-61 at the line which made the score seem closer than what it was.

The Privateers scored 32 of their 50 second-half points in the final 10 minutes of the game, and while the Colonels began to struggle at the free throw line down the stretch going 7-for-18, UNO got 16 points and eventually cut the lead to just five points with 33 seconds remaining.

The difference in crunch time was the press break for Nicholls, as the team got the bulk of their fast break points during the second half and finished with eight to UNO's two.

Nicholls returns to the floor on Saturday afternoon, hosting the Southeastern Louisiana Lions at 3:30 p.m. in Stopher Gym.