Thibodaux, La. – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team closes the month of January on Thursday night, taking on the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at 8 p.m. in Stopher Gym in Thibodaux in the team's annual Stuff Stopher event.
Thursday night's game will be the second week in a row that the Colonels will have one of their games televised, as coverage will be provided by ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app. David Saltzman will serve as lead commentator and will be joined by legendary coach Van Chancellor. The contest will reach a broader audience than ever before, with the game getting carried by ESPN in Australia and New Zealand beginning at 1 p.m. AEDT on Friday.
The contest against the Golden Eagles will begin at 8 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.
After playing three games in a week's time, the Colonels got break with no games over the course of the weekend, returning to action this week with the last two home games until the end of February, closing out the home portion of the schedule with three-straight. Nicholls hosts the Golden Eagles on Thursday and the Central Arkansas Bears on Saturday, before beginning a four-game road trek next week.
After taking their first loss at home to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the Colonels had little time to reflect as the team went into Lake Charles just a few days later and came away with a big, 87-79 overtime win over the Cowboys at the Lake Charles Civic Center that Tuesday night. The rivalry against the Cowboys has become the stuff of legend recently, as two of the last four games in the series have gone to overtime to decide a winner. The Colonels came back for the first time all season to win after trailing at halftime, shooting over 55 percent in the game to pull out the victory
The win was the team's seventh in their last 11 contests, as Nicholls improved to 8-8 on the year and 5-2 in Southland Conference play, sitting in fourth place in the league standings behind the Islanders, Sam Houston State and undefeated Stephen F. Austin. With eight wins already this season, the Colonels have the chance this weekend to match and eclipse its entire win total from last year, hoping to stay in the top half of the pack with the second half of league play looming next week.
Leading the pack offensively was senior guard
Dantrell Thomas, who scored a game-leading 27 points and pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Thomas, who is leading the team averaging over 15 points per game so far this year, became the 24
th player in team history to earn 1,000 points in a career, as he was 26 points shy going into the game against the Cowboys. He currently leads the team in points, rebounds assists and steals, and is 73
rd in the nation with his 51.8 field goal percentage.
Outside of Thomas, the most recent change to the starting lineup with the additions of
Sam McBeath and
T.J. Carpenter have yielded some positive results as a whole, as the Colonel starters have accounted for over 90 percent of the team's scoring in each of the last two games. The Nicholls bench against McNeese State scored just three points, coming from a
Luke Doyle 3-pointer.
Beginning with fellow senior
Jeremy Smith, the New Orleans native poured in a career-high 25 points against the Cowboys, making a career best 10 free throws in the game. Smith currently leads the team in field goal percentage, making 55 percent of the shots he takes this season and 53 percent for his career.
Shane Rillieux's scoring has picked up the last few weeks, as the junior has scored in double figures in three of the last four games. In conference play alone he is averaging 8.7 points per game, three points better than his season average.
Of the seven 3-pointers the Colonels drained last week, five came from the usual suspects in McBeath and
T.J. Carpenter. For the first time in his career, McBeath was perfect from distance hitting all three shots he took, while Carpenter connected with two of his own for the tenth time this season. Carpenter is one of three sophomores who average at least two made three's a game, as he is fifth in the league averaging 2.1.
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles come into the game sporting a 10-10 overall record and 4-3 mark in league contests, dropping both games at home last weekend to SFA and Northwestern State. ORU is currently in a tie for sixth place in the conference standings, but have yet to drop a league game on the road sitting at 2-0 away from the Mabee Center.
Thursday's game might be the last time these two teams meet for a long while as the Golden Eagles announced that they were leaving the Southland to re-join the Summit League as a full member in July. After the initial meeting in the series in 1968, the two teams did not meet again until 20 years later, and then most recently last year when the two sides played twice. ORU has won all four games in the series history.
Shawn Glover leads the Golden Eagles, averaging over 21 points per game on the year and 23 points in Southland Conference play. He's pulling down over six rebounds per game against league opponents, including scoring 32 against Northwestern State with nine rebounds.
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
TV: ESPN3 and WatchESPN app, ESPN in Australia and New Zealand
Broadcast Team: David Saltzman (play-by-play), Van Chancellor (analyst)
Radio: ESPN 100.3 FM, KLEB 1600 AM
Broadcast Team: Mike Wagenheim (play-by-play)
Live Stats: www.GeauxColonels.com
