BATON ROUGE, La. -- Despite a back-and-forth battle throughout first three-quarters of the contest, the Nicholls State University men's basketball program (2-2, 0-0 Southland) was unable slow down a late surge from in-state rival No. 23 LSU (2-1, 0-0 SEC), faltering by 75-65 final mark to the Tigers on Saturday afternoon at the Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, La.

Individually, the Colonels' offensive prowess once again sparked off redshirt senior Dexter McClanahan, who paced the team for the third time in four games behind a game-high 20 points. Fellow redshirt senior D'Angelo Hunter also logged a solid performance, dropping 15 points on the day in his second-best showing of the year (17 points at Pitt). On the glass, senior Elvis Harvey Jr. pulled down a squad-high eight boards while sophomore Warith Alatishe grabbed six of his own; meanwhile, junior Kevin Johnson took over as a game manager, recording five assists and two rebounds in the contest.

KEY STORYLINES & STATISTICS
-- An equitable start from both squads saw the lead exchanged a number of times across the opening 10 minutes, but a few highlight-worthy plays from McClanahan pushed the Colonels to an eight-point advantage -- their largest lead of the day -- with just over seven minutes remaining. A 10-3 LSU run to close the half cut the Red & Gray edge down to just one entering the break, granting the Tigers some momentum following halftime as they established a 10-point lead just under eight minutes into the second. The Colonels made two significant pushes over the final 10 minutes -- coming as close as five -- but the home court advantage combined with a few tough rolls helped the Tigers seal the victory.
-- For the game, Nicholls finished shooting 38.7 percent (24-of-62) overall, 30.8 percent (8-of-26) from the three-point line and 81.8 percent (9-of-11) at the charity stripe.
-- In addition to McClanahan's 20 points, the Georgia native both led the team in steals (3) and secured five rebounds, third-best on the squad.
-- The final box score also saw significant production from Harvey Jr., who notched nine points in the contest, and junior Andre Jones, who put up seven.

POSTGAME QUOTES
-- "This game was tough battle and I'm proud of the way our guys fought. We were able to do a good job of forcing turnovers, but we couldn't capitalize on them. We struggled shooting today, especially from three, but we missed too many open shots. I really liked how we played with physicality and energy in the first half, but we weren't able to maintain it in the second half." -- Nicholls HC Austin Claunch
-- "They play extremely hard. They took Illinois to overtime. They won at Pittsburgh. They are a good team. Austin Claunch is doing a heck of a job with his staff. They have good players and they played extremely hard. They play with great confidence and that's a credit to them." -- LSU HC Will Wade

UP NEXT
With the roadtrip opener at No. 23 concluded, the Red & Gray immediately shift focus to their most geographically-taxing stretch of the season, initially traveling to Rhode Island on Tuesday, Nov. 19 for a matchup against the Rams before flying south into the Caribbean for a pair of contests at the Jamaica Classic: North Carolina A&T on Friday, Nov. 22 and UMBC on Sunday, Nov. 24.

STAY SOCIAL
For more information on Colonels Men's Basketball, follow the team on Twitter (@Nicholls_MBB), Instagram (@geauxcolonels) and like their Facebook page (Nicholls Athletics).