Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – Hoping to avoid a letdown after a big win on Thursday, the Nicholls men's basketball team got a career-high 20 points from Sam McBeath and a double-double from Dantrell Thomas with his 19 points and 10 rebounds as the Colonels pulled out a 78-67 victory over the Central Arkansas Bears in Stopher Gym Saturday afternoon in Thibodaux.

With the win, the Colonels (10-8, 7-2 SLC) have won three-straight games for the second time this season, improving its record to 7-1 at home this year while earning the first double-digit win against a league opponent. Central Arkansas falls to 5-15 on the year and 2-7 in league play, as the Bears got a game-high 22 points from LaQuentin Miles.

Clinging to a three-point lead midway through the second period, McBeath hit the first of his two clutch 3-pointers in the second half to give Nicholls a six-point advantage up 59-53. After scoring eight points on a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the first half, the redshirt sophomore from Sydney hit another with 2:02 left in the game to give the Colonels a 73-64 advantage, coming back on the next play to get a tough layup to go for his team-leading 20th point of the night to cap a five-point swing to push the team up 11. He finished 8-of-11 from the field with five rebounds, three assists and a steal in 21 minutes of action.

McBeath led a trio of double-digit scorers on the day, as Dantrell Thomas went up against Miles in a showdown featuring two of the league's most lethal scorers. Although the senior guard finished a point shy of his third consecutive 20-point game, he cleaned up on the glass and pulled down 10 rebounds for his second double-double in the last three games. Jeremy Smith scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half, going 7-of-12 from the field with three rebounds and an assist.

After the first few minutes of the game had passed, it seemed as if the fans in attendance were going to be treated to a very efficient game by both sides. The Colonels, however, shot 56 percent in the first half and followed that up with a 44-point outburst in the second to pull away from UCA for good, leading by 13 before a pair of free throws at the end cut the Bear deficit to 11.

The Colonels' biggest asset on the night came from the very spot that has plagued the team all season at the free throw line. After being just 3-of-4 in the first half, Nicholls was 18-for-19 in the second half to finish with a season high 91.3 percent clip from the charity stripe, while the Bears were 16-for-28, making just six in the first half on 13 tries and 10 of 15 in the second. After Liam Thomas missed the first of two opportunities, Nicholls made 20 consecutive free throws before a Smith miss late in game snapped the streak.

Nicholls grabbed one more rebound than the Bears on the night (31-30) thanks to Thomas' game-leading 10, although UCA grabbed nine offensive boards and turned those into 12 second chance points to Nicholls' five. UCA's bench also outscored the Colonels 20-13, but Nicholls held the advantage with 36 points in the paint to the Bears' two, and got 12 points off of nine visitor turnovers.

The Colonels never trailed in a contest that featured just one tie when the game was knotted up at 2-2. The home side used the first 15 minutes of the game to go up 28-17, finished with a 5-0 run by Thomas after two layups and a free throw. Still, if not for the first of two Luke Doyle 3-pointers in the game at the 1:48 mark of the first, Nicholls might have gone into the locker room trailing instead of being up by two at 34-32, as UCA closed out the period on a 15-6 run.

Nicholls fought with the Bears for the first 10 minutes of the second to a 16-16 stalemate, with the Colonels have a 50-48 advantage heading into the crucial stretch of the contest. Amin Torres went on to score all four of his points after a layup and two free throws to power a 14-7 run to put the team up 64-55 with 6:50 left. Again, Central Arkansas found its scoring touch outscoring Nicholls 9-2 over the next two minutes to pull back within two with less than five minutes remaining.

That short run was the closest the Bears would get for the rest of the game as Nicholls got a pair of free throws from Thomas to cap his 7-for-7 night at the line, a Smith layup and the five-point run from McBeath to put the game away on a 9-0 swing.

The Colonels will be back in action on Thursday night, beginning a four-game road swing with a matchup with league-leading Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches.