CONWAY, Ark. – The Nicholls State University men's basketball team dug deep and used a gritty second-half performance to earn their first road victory of the season as the squad powered past Central Arkansas 71-61, on Saturday night in Conway.
 
The Colonels (5-11, 2-4 SLC) were tied 32-32 with the Bears (0-17, 0-6 SLC) at the midway point, but found another gear in the second period behind Ja'Dante' Frye, who matched a career-high with 19 points on 9-11 shooting, and Quinton Thomas, who scored 12 of his 17 points in the second frame.
 
Nicholls opened the second half on a 10-2 run to take an eight-point lead at the 16-minute mark. Two minutes later a Travis Julien layup pushed the Colonels advantage to nine. Central Arkansas responded with six straight points, capped by a Kamba Mathieu layup to pull the Bears within three. The Nicholls lead hovered around five before a Luka Kamber three-pointer broke open the scoring and the Colonels used a 7-0 run to grab an 11-point advantage with eight minutes remaining in the game. Central Arkansas fought back, pulling within four points, but a T.J. Carpenter layup and a Frye dunk reenergized Nicholls and the team held on in the final minutes to escape with the win.
 
The Colonels shot 54 percent from the floor and 37.5 percent from beyond the arc on one of their best shooting nights of the season. In contrast, the Bears shot just 34 percent from the floor and 22.2 percent from three-point range. Nicholls dominated points in the paint (44-24) and finished with more second chance points (12-9), fast break points (12-4), bench points (30-25) and assists (14-9) in the ballgame.
 
The Colonels shot an abysmal 48.3 percent from the charity stripe overall, but clutch free throw shooting from Q. Thomas down the stretch was instrumental in securing the victory. Q. Thomas went 9-12 from the line, including 8-9 in the second half.
 
Frye and Q. Thomas led Nicholls offensively with 19 and 17 points respectively, and the pair combined for 10 boards. Carpenter finished with team-highs in rebounds (six) and assists (five), while Q. Thomas and Liam Thomas each had two steals to lead the squad. Four Colonels recorded a block on the night.
 
Jordan Howard headed up the offensive efforts for Central Arkansas, earning 18 points. Mathieu finished second in scoring with 15 points and grabbed a team-leading 10 boards. Mike Martin led the Bears with three assists and three steals.
 
Nicholls will travel to Northwestern State for a 6:30 p.m. matchup on Monday in Natchitoches, before returning home to face Incarnate Word at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31. Both games will be broadcast live on KQKI 95.3 FM.
 
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