THIBODAUX, La. – After traveling nearly 8,000 miles over the last three weeks, the Nicholls State University men's basketball team will play its regular-season home opener against Loyola University of New Orleans at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday in Stopher Gym.
 
The Colonels (0-4) have undertaken arguably the most challenging non-conference schedule in the country, facing North Texas, UCLA, Wake Forest and No. 19 Michigan on a four-game road-swing, with tough matchups against No. 2 Wisconsin and Louisiana Tech upcoming. Nicholls hopes the difficulty of its early schedule will be a trial by fire and that its young squad will emerge battle-tested as the team approaches conference play.
 
The Wolf Pack (4-4) started the season 1-3, but turned things around after winning three of its last four games. The team is coming off of a 59-46 win over Xavier on Wednesday and will be a more than capable opponent entering Saturday's bout.
 
The Colonels own a 15-2 advantage in the all-time series against Loyola. In last season's matchup T.J. Carpenter led with 20 points off the bench, including five shots from beyond the arc, en route to an 87-62 Nicholls victory.
 
Through four games the Colonels are averaging 60.2 points a game while surrendering 86. Nicholls is shooting 39.3 percent from the floor and 29.3 from three-point range, while allowing 47.8 percent from the field and 42.5 from behind the arc. Despite the shortfalls in overall points and shooting percentage, the Colonels have played exceptionally well in the second half of all four contests. Nicholls has been outscored by a total of two points in the second period all season.
 
The most glaring disparities for the Colonels have come at the free throw line and on the boards. Nicholls has taken just 57 free throws, compared to 125 from its opponents, and has been outrebounded 183-112. The Colonels must see dramatic improvement on the boards and at the charity strike in order to be in position for a win on Saturday.
 
Amin Torres and Ja'Dante Frye lead Nicholls on the offensive end, averaging 10.5 and 10.3 points respectively. Sam McBeath paces the squad with five rebounds per contest and T.J. Carpenter has a team-leading 2.5 assists per game average. Richie Lewis is currently ranked seventh in the country in steals per game, averaging three per contest.
 
McCall Tomeny spearheads the offensive attack for the Wolf Pack with 17.4 points per game, while grabbing a team-high 9.6 boards per contest. Kyle Simmons paces the squad with three assists per game.
 
Nicholls will face Loyola on Saturday before flying to Madison for a matchup against No. 2 Wisconsin at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13.
 
Saturday's contest will be broadcast live on KQKI 95.3 FM.
 
Visit geauxcolonels.com for live stats and the most up-to-date information on Nicholls men's basketball.