LAKE CHARLES, La. - The Nicholls State University men's basketball team received an MVP-type performance from
Diante Smith, who had a career-high 33 points, but it was not nearly enough to derail top-seed McNeese's historic season as the Colonels fell 92-76 in the Southland Tournament championship on Wednesday evening at the Legacy Center.
Nicholls wrapped up head coach
Tevon Saddler's rookie campaign with a 20-14 overall record, which was just the program's eighth 20-win season in over 60 years. McNeese secured its program record 30th win to earn the Southland's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Smith was named to the All-Tournament team thanks to his new career-high of points in the finale. In the three postseason games, he averaged 23.0 points on 53 percent shooting. He was joined on the team by McNeese's Shahada Wells, who added Tournament MVP to his accolades after being named Southland Player and Newcomer of the Year. Wells led the Cowboys with 27 points in the title bout, making 12 of 13 from the free throw line.
Playing in front of a sellout home crowd, McNeese scored the game's first seven points and never surrendered the lead. The Cowboys pushed their advantage to double figures with seven minutes to go in the first half and it remained in double digits the rest of the night. The Colonels kept the deficit in the teens most of the second half but could never piece together a big run.
The smallest deficit after the break came when Tuesday night's star,
Michael Gray Jr. who had 23 points in the semifinal win, hit a three-pointer with 5:35 to go to make it 80-68. Then with the lead still at 12 a minute later, McNeese scored the next five points capped on a Christian Shumate dunk to put the game on ice.
Smith accounted for half of the Colonels' points in the first period as they trailed 48-32 at the intermission. For the game, he shot 11 of 20 from the field and connected on 5 of 11 from three-point range. The performance was the second straight career-high for Smith against the Cowboys after scoring 29 in the same building on March 2.
Nicholls drained 10 three-pointers in the loss with
Robert Brown III adding a pair. He finished with 13 points and five assists, while
Jamal West Jr. reached double figures as well with 11 points.
After averaging 19 turnovers in the two previous losses to McNeese this season, the Colonels had just 11 and shot 49 percent from the field not could not slow down the Cowboy offense. McNeese shot 61 percent overall, drained 11 of 20 from three-point range, and made 27 of 35 at the free throw line.
Javohn Garcia and DJ Richards joined Wells on the All-Tournament squad after combining for 35 points in the title game. The championship was the first for the Cowboys since 2002.
Although the Colonels were unable to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998, the season was filled with several highlights. Nicholls wasted no time in making headlines after Saddler earned his first career victory with a 68-66 win at LSU in the opening week. The Colonels also played in six overtime games which was the second most in the NCAA, capped by their fifth win in OT in the semifinals against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The 20-win season under Coach Saddler was the best in program history by a first-year coach. Six of the victories came in sweeps against in-state rivals New Orleans, Northwestern State and Southeastern.
