THIBODAUX, La. - The Nicholls State University men's basketball team will begin 2022 in Katy, Texas in the Southland Tip-Off Event, taking on UIW Thursday night at the Merrell Center. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
All eight teams in the Southland will participate in the three-day tournament. The games will not count towards conference records.
The Colonels (8-6) drew UIW (3-11) in the blind lottery that determined the first-round matchups. The winner will advance to play the winner of Northwestern State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The loser of both games will play earlier on Friday. HBU, McNeese, New Orleans, and Southeastern make up the other side of the
bracket.
Nicholls dropped three of its last four games to close out 2021, but all three losses were against Power 5 programs. In addition to a setback against Oregon State, the Colonels fell at Wisconsin, 71-68, and at Purdue, 104-90 -- both which are nationally ranked.
The Colonels secured four Division I victories in the nonconference after defeating Northern Iowa, Cal Poly and Mississippi Valley twice. The lone non P5 loss was against Utah Valley while the other two were against Big 12 members No. 1 Baylor and TCU.
Despite a tough schedule, Nicholls ranks 32nd in the NCAA at 80.2 points per game. The offense also ranks in the top 50 in 3-pointers made per game as the Colonels are averaging 9.6.
Fifth-year guard
Ty Gordon has been the main reason for the offensive success. The Tunica, Mississippi native ranks 12th in the nation in scoring at 21.0 points per game and is fifth with 5.0 3-pointers per outing. Gordon, who has been named Southland Player of the Week five times already this season, closed out '21 with a career-high 29 points and nine made 3-pointers against No. 3 Purdue.
Gordon is joined in double figures in scoring by
Devante Carter, who comes into the tournament averaging 11.1 points. While there are only two players averaging more than 10 points, another five are averaging at least 7.0 points.
Latrell Jones leads that group at 9.7 points after his 18-point outing at Purdue.
Defensively, center
Ryghe Lyons leads the Southland with 27 blocks. Lyons had a breakout game on the other end of the court against Purdue, scoring 20 points which included a 3-for-3 day from behind the arc. He also blocked at least three shots for the sixth time this season.
Nicholls and UIW will be meeting for the first time since January of 2020 where the Colonels won at home, 76-60, to even up the all-time series at 5-5.
