THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team returns to action on Thursday night, taking on the New Orleans Privateers at the Lakefront Arena at 7:45 p.m. in New Orleans.
 
The Colonel Countdown pregame show will begin 15 minutes prior to tip off against the Colonels and Privateers on the all-new ESPN 100.3 FM and KLEB 1600 AM locally in Thibodaux and online. Links to live stats provided by New Orleans will be on the home page at GeauxColonels.com.
 
A week after sitting in the top three in the standings and looking to capitalize on the momentum it had after the first half of league play began, Nicholls has been on the bad end of two tough losses last weekend, falling to Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern State. The consecutive losses are the first for the team since the beginning of non-conference play back in November, as the Colonels are 10-10 on the year and 7-4 in league play, occupying the fifth spot in the standings.
 
Road games have been a struggle for the team this year with a 3-9 record in games away from Thibodaux, something the Colonels are hoping to turn around this weekend at New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana, as the team earned wins over both sides to open league play in January.
 
If Nicholls is going to want to earn positive results, the signature defense that the squad played through the first nine league games of the year will have to be paramount, bucking the trend for the group where the Colonels are giving up an average of 81.2 points to opponents while only scoring 68.9, amounting to a scoring differential of 11.4. The last two games have also slid away from the norm for the group in holding on to the ball, as Nicholls has turned it over more than both of its opponents, including committing a season-high 21 against the Lumberjacks.
 
Even in the losses, the Colonels have still gotten solid play across the board, led by senior Dantrell Thomas.
 
Thomas is averaging over 18 points per game in league play and helped increase that total as he pieced together his third double-double of the season with 28 points and 10 rebounds against the Demons. He leads the team in scoring, rebounding (5.7 rpg), free throw percentage (.806) and assists (2.9), while he has been able to make double-digit free throws in two of his last four games. Thomas has led the team in scoring 11 times and in rebounding 10 times on the year.
 
In all, the top five players in scoring on the team also happen to be the current starting five of Thomas, T.J. Carpenter, Jeremy Smith, Sam McBeath and Shane Rillieux. Carpenter broke his drought of consecutive games without double figure points, as he had 10 against NWST in 25 minutes of action. On the other side, Smith had his streak of double-digit games snapped in Natchitoches, but he is still averaging a career best 13.4 points per game this year.
 
Off of the bench, Ja'Dante' Frye had eight points on 4-of-5 shooting against the Demons, while Amin Torres had five and Liam Thomas chipped in four. Thomas helped Nicholls to five blocks against Northwestern State, earning three and has six games on the season with at least two blocks in a contest.
 
If anything, Thursday's contest should be nowhere near the exhibition that the two teams put on when they kicked off Southland Conference play in Stopher Gym back in early January. With UNO entering the league and starting a very new rivalry with the Colonels, the two sides battled through a record number of fouls, free throws and disqualifications that had Nicholls come out of the other end with the 88-83 victory. Since that time, the Privateers have begun to roll, winning six of their last nine and four of their last five.
 
If the Privateers were eligible for the conference tournament this year, they would be sitting seventh in terms of seeding and eighth overall in the standings at 9-10 and 6-5 in conference.
 
Cory Dixon leads the Privateer charge scoring 13.9 points and pulling down 8.2 rebounds per game. Although he is the only player currently averaging double-digit points over the course of the year, since conference play started, both Christavious Gill and Tradarri McPhearson are scoring in double figures with Gill doing so off of the bench with 13.8 ppg, while McPhearson is scoring 11.9.
 
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
TV: None
Radio: ESPN 100.3 FM, KLEB 1600 AM
Broadcast Team: Mike Wagenheim (play-by-play)
Live Stats: www.UNOPrivateers.com