HAMMOND, La. -- Paced by a career-best 30-point performance out of Najee Garvin along with some late heroics from Ty Gordon, the Nicholls State University men's basketball program (12-6, 9-2 SLC) escaped an overtime barnburner with in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana (6-13, 4-6 SLC) by a narrow two-point margin, edging past the Lions by a final 86-84 mark Saturday evening at the University Center in the team's second consecutive Southland victory.

Despite the Colonels managing to maintain a lead for nearly every moment of regulation (tied for 34 total seconds), a last-minute SLU push saw the Lions climb their way back into contention, knotting the contest at 79 apiece on a banked-in three-pointer from Keon Clergeot with just under six seconds to play.

A back-and-forth overtime began with the Red & Gray reclaiming their advantage on a pair of Andre Jones free throws before, on a wide-open look from the deep wing, JonDarius Warren earned Southeastern Louisiana its first edge of the evening. From this point on, though, Gordon saw fit to take control in spite of his seemingly off night -- four points thus far, good for a season-low vs. DI opponents -- initially drilling a step-back triple before clinching the win behind a goaltended layup with just over a second remaining.
 
KEY STORYLINES & STATISTICS
-- For the night, Nicholls finished shooting 52.5 percent (31-of-59) from the floor, 38.1 percent (8-of-21) beyond the arc and 64.0 percent (16-of-25) from the free throw line.
-- With the win, the Colonels pick up their second-straight series sweep of rival Southeastern Louisiana and move to 9-2 in league play, trailing leader Sam Houston (10-1) by just one game.
-- Garvin, who hit his previous career-high 19 points for the second and third times earlier this year, cleared both the 20- and 30-point plateaus in a single bound, finishing with 30 points behind an elite 12-of-20 shooting performance from the field along with a 6-of-8 showing at the charity stripe. The redshirt junior also crashed the glass consistently for the Red & Gray, pulling down a team-best seven boards.
-- Meanwhile, senior Kevin Johnson secured his place in program history as the local Thibodaux product became just the 24th Nicholls student-athlete to breach the 1,000 career points mark, notching the exact amount necessary -- 11 points -- to capture the prestigious honor.
-- Redshirt senior Jaylen Fornes put together his third consecutive double-digit output as the North Carolina import racked up a team second-best 15 points, shooting a solid 6-of-10 from the floor as well as a perfect 3-of-3 from range.
-- In yet-another quietly impactful performance, redshirt senior Andre Jones paced the squad in two crucial categories -- assists (6) and steals (3) -- while also contributing five rebounds and 11 points, good for the Arkansas native's ninth double-digit outing of the season.

UP NEXT
With the three-game road trek concluded, the Colonels shift focus to their final set of home contests, kicking off the stretch against Northwestern State on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at Stopher Gym, tip set for 7 p.m.

STAY SOCIAL
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