1 win away: Lady Trojans among several locals 1 step from State Title
February 21, 2018
The LHSAA has some fixing to do
February 21, 2018
On paper, the Nicholls State University men’s basketball team should beat Central Arkansas.
The Colonels are first place in the Southland Conference standings and the Bears are in the middle of the pack. Nicholls beat Central Arkansas earlier this season and has gotten better since then.
But when looking at the big picture, it’s easy to see just how great Saturday’s performance was for the Colonels.
Nicholls did beat the Bears 87-83 in a thriller – a close, hard-fought game that kept the Colonels in first place in the Southland Conference.
The Colonels bussed to Conway, Arkansas early Saturday morning to arrive before the afternoon tip. They overcame dead legs, tight whistles and a large crowd with a second-half rally that helped the Colonels secure the win – arguably among their biggest of the season.
“It’s just huge,” Colonels coach Richie Riley said after the win. “To come from behind on the road in a hostile road environment – it’s just a great thing for our team.”
Saturday’s game was brutally tough for Nicholls.
The Bears played well and defended their home court with honor, jumping out to a 26-20 lead midway through the first quarter.
Scoring guard Jordan Howard was near-invincible in the win, scoring 37 points, while playing all 40 minutes. Nicholls couldn’t defend Howard without fouling him. He shot 19 free throws in the game – making them all.
Nicholls had 16 team fouls in the first half and seven players had two or more fouls, which put the team in serious jeopardy for the final reaches of the game.
But toward the end of the first half, Nicholls started to shake their heavy legs and started to settle themselves.
Sparked by 4-of-4 shooting from deep by reserves Lafayette Rutledge and Stevie Repichowski, the Colonels cut the lead and tied the game at 44 at halftime.
While Howard was going nuts for Central Arkansas, Peters was doing the same for Nicholls. The senior guard had 15 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists in the first half in 16 minutes – getting to the free throw line 11 times in the first 20 minutes.
The second half was a slug fest.
Officials got out of the way and let the two teams play and the result was a thrilling finish.
The Colonels made the first run – storming out to a 62-54 run early in the half, thanks to the energy of senior Tevon Saddler, who missed a lot of the first half with foul trouble.
Saddler also had an and-1 at the midway mark of the half to put Nicholls up 70-61 – three of his 14 points in the win.
But the Bears battled back.
For an eight-minute stretch from the 10-minute mark to the 2-minute mark in the second half, the Bears dominated play, going on a 20-10 run to take an 81-80 lead with 1:48 to play after Howard made a floater in the paint.
But the Colonels made the winning plays down the stretch.
After Howard’s basket, Peters made a layup in transition to put Nicholls up 82-81 with 53 seconds to go. After forcing Howard into a miss, Peters drew a foul and made both free throws to put the Colonels up 84-81.
Central Arkansas had a chance late, but turned over the ball, which led to more heroics from Peters, who put the game on ice – part of his 30-point game.
The Colonels had four players in double-figures in the game. Also scoring were Jahvaughn Powell (19 points), Saddler (14 points) and Rutledge (11 points).
The Colonels shot 44 percent from the field in the win and made nine 3-point shots.
In the second half, they limited the Bears to just 11 free throw attempts – an impressive feat after surrendering 26 free throw attempts in the first half.
With the win, the Colonels are now 18-9 on the season and 12-2 in the Southland – a half-game ahead of Southeastern Louisiana, which sits at 12-3.
The Colonels will have two huge games this week – first a date at McNeese on Wednesday and then at home against UNO on Saturday.
Nicholls has beaten both foes. They beat the Cowboys 85-80 earlier this season and walloped UNO 81-64 in New Orleans a few weeks ago.
NICHOLLS WOMEN FALL AT UCA
The Nicholls women couldn’t get the same road magic that the men got.
The Colonels battled the Bears throughout the game – even leading 24-23 at halftime in a close, competitive game.
But in the second half, Nicholls showed a little fatigue, shooting just 6-of-22 from the field. Those empty possessions allowed UCA to go on a run to take the lead, then extend it to 41-35 at the end of the third quarter, then 60-42 when the final buzzer sounded.
The Colonels fell to 12-13 in the loss, falling to 7-7 in Southland play.
Cassidy Barrios led the Colonels with 15 points. Tia Charles pitched in 11 points.
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