Final Stats Beaumont, Texas – Tied up with less than eight minutes remaining, the Nicholls men's basketball team got a key seven-point run late and held the Lamar Cardinals without a field goal for the final 8:32 to pull out the 64-60 win to remain undefeated in Southland Conference play for the first time since 1997-98.

With the win, Nicholls improves to 6-6 overall and 3-0 in league play for the first time in over 15 years, matching that feat with the last Colonel NCAA Tournament team during that year's magical run to the national tournament. The Colonels have won six of their last eight games and are .500 for the first time this season. Lamar falls to 1-14 on the year and remains winless in the Southland at 0-3, dropping its 11th consecutive contest.

Getting a complete team effort, Nicholls was led by senior guards Dantrell Thomas and Jeremy Smith who combined for 28 points and 12 rebounds in the victory, as the two helped put the game away in the final minutes as Thomas scored his 15th point with a layup in the lane and on the very next play grabbed his team-leading seventh rebound and assisted on a fast-break dunk by Smith for his 13th point to give the Colonels a 64-58 advantage with 1:25 left in the second half.

Two areas that helped overcome the 21-for-28 night from the free throw line for Lamar was the play of the bench, in particular, Sam McBeath.

McBeath scored a season-high 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, hitting four of Nicholls' five 3-pointers on the night off of the pine to go along with his four rebounds, two steals and key block down the stretch that kept the Cardinals at bay. The Sydney, Australia product had three more makes from three and connected on as many as the Cardinals attempted all night (1-4) as the Colonel bench outscored Lamar 21-0.

After allowing Lamar to shoot 57 percent from the field in the first half, Nicholls clamped down defensively in the second to the tune of a 28 percent clip for the Cardinals with just seven made shots from the field. Lamar did most of its damage at the free throw line in the final 20 minutes, going 8-for-12 from the charity stripe, while going 0-for-8 from the field during that last 8:32.

Lamar became the latest casualty in the Colonels' run of frustrating other teams offensively, becoming the fourth straight team to commit more turnovers than Nicholls, scoring 11 points off of 13 Cardinal miscues. The Colonels also dominated the paint, getting 36 points in the lane and 14 second chance points, earning 11 of their game-leading 33 rebounds offensively.

For two-thirds of the final stanza, Lamar outscored Nicholls 21-19 tying the game at 53-all, getting seven made baskets from the field and five free throws with a little less than eight minutes remaining. During this run, the Cardinals also got its first and only 3-pointer of the half forcing two lead changes during the period.

With 7:59 remaining in the game, the Colonels began to turn its defense into offense and went on a key, 7-0 run to pull ahead 60-53 which spanned close to three minutes and gave the Colonels a short, comfortable cushion heading into crunch time. T.J. Carpenter, who was struggling with his shot for most of the night, got two big buckets to go along with one from J'Dante Frye to put the pressure on the Cardinals to match. Carpenter finished the game with six points and three rebounds, while Frye garnered four with two rebounds.

The Colonels went into the halftime break with a huge score, as Shane Rillieux drove the length of the court with less than six seconds left and got a tough layup to go with the clock expiring to give Nicholls a 34-32 lead. After it seemed like the Cardinals were going to be impossible to stop from the field, the Colonels ended the half breaking the fourth tie of the opening half, as Rillieux finished with seven points, two rebounds and assist and a steal.

Nicholls closed the half outscoring Lamar 24-14 over the final 11:42 of the first, holding the Cardinals without a made shot from the field for nearly four of the final five minutes remaining, even as Lamar was 8-of-10 from the free throw line to keep it close. Smith and Thomas combined for 16 first-half points and six made shots from the field.

Lamar started the game about as well as a team looking for its first win could have asked for, sinking its first four shots from the field, connecting on seven of its first nine to shoot 78 percent from the field and jumping out to an 18-10 lead on the back of an 8-4 run. At this same point, the Colonels were 4-for-14 and 0-for-3 from three, with a 29 percent clip from the field.

Fortunately, the Colonels got hot and went on a 6-0 run before a Lamar layup signaled the third team timeout of the half, pulling Nicholls within four down 20-16. Out of that same break, Rillieux earned a three-point play to give Nicholls its first lead up 22-20, before Lamar's Amos Wilson tied it back up at 22.

As soon as the Colonels took the lead, it boosted their confidence in their shots from distance, as Luke Doyle hit Nicholls' first 3-pointer of the night as Nicholls was outscoring the Cardinals 18-6 during this stretch. McBeath hit consecutive threes to give the Colonels a four-point cushion with a little more than a minute remaining leading 32-28.

The Colonels will be back in action on Saturday afternoon, taking on the Sam Houston State Bearkats at 4 p.m. in Huntsville.