NEW ORLEANS, La. - The Nicholls State University men's basketball team drained a season-high 17 three-pointers as the Colonels stayed undefeated in Southland play with a 90-77 victory at New Orleans Saturday evening inside Lakefront Arena.
The victory pushed the Colonels' winning streak to five games and upped their conference record to 7-0. Nicholls is also now 8-8 overall after starting the season 0-7.
The three-point barrage was led by
Jaylen Searles,
Zee Hamoda and
Zaiden Cross who all sank four each. Searles scored a team-high 24 points while Hamoda came off the bench for a season-high 20 points. Along with being the leading scorer, Searles filled up the stat sheet with four assists, four steals and two blocks.
Making his second start of the season, all of Cross's 12 points came off of 4 of 8 from behind the arc. He hit two from long range for the Colonels' first six points. As a team, Nicholls shot 46 from three-point range and 50 percent overall.
The first half saw six ties and six lead changes before the Colonels grabbed control heading into the break. Trailing 35-32 with four minutes remaining in the half, Nicholls got back-to-back triples from Searles and
Trae English. The Colonels pushed the lead to seven with another three-ball by Cross and after UNO trimmed the deficit to two, Hamoda sank a jumper at the buzzer for a 47-43 advantage.
To start the second half, the threes continued to fall as English and Cross connected from deep for a 10-point lead.
UNO (5-11, 3-4 SLC) kept the margin around 10 until Searles scored 10 straight points for the Colonels. He started with a steal and a dunk, scored on a layup, then canned back-to-back threes for a 74-55 lead with 11 minutes remaining.
The 19 points was the largest lead of the day and the Colonels kept the margin at double figures en route to their fifth straight win over the Privateers.
English finished with a team-high seven while adding four steals. The Nicholls defense caused 15 turnovers which led to a 29-15 advantage in points off of turnovers.
UNO was led by Coleton Benson who scored 22 of his game-high 26 points in the first half.
UP NEXT
Nicholls will head to McNeese on Monday night for a 6:30 tipoff against the Cowboys. The Colonels split the season series with McNeese last year but have not won on the road against the Cowboys since 2023.
