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It won’t be easy to work the scoreboard at a Nicholls State University men’s basketball game this season.
The Colonels score points in droves.
Nicholls basketball was 3-3 on Monday night at press-time. The team played another game at home on Monday against Blue Mountain College, but no score was available at press-time.
We may not know the outcome, but we do know one thing for sure – the Colonels likely played up-tempo for all 40 minutes and shot quick shots and 3-pointers.
That style will be a staple of this year’s team, according to coach Richie Riley, who said he believes his team has the talent to overwhelm a lot of opponents in a high-possession game.
“I don’t know that offense will be our challenge,” Riley said before the season. “I think we can score a lot of points and really challenge defenses with our penetration and our shot making. For us, we want to commit ourselves to defense. We want to get better there. If we do, that should make our offense even better.”
Riley’s words are very indicative of how the Colonels have played so far this season.
Nicholls plays as fast as anyone in the country – an up-tempo pace that’s exciting for fans and is brutally tough for opponents to defend.
The Colonels scored 94.2 points per game in their first six games of the season – a number that ranks among the best in the NCAA.
The Colonels are lethal from everywhere on the floor, owning a 46.5 percent shooting percentage as a team.
But a lot of that damage is done from behind the 3-point line – where the Colonels are super good.
Nicholls shot 73-of-181 (40.3 percent) from behind the arc in their first six games. That average is elite among the teams in the Southland Conference.
Senior Lafayette Rutledge is the top marksman on the Colonels’ roster, having already made 26 3-pointers on the season in 55 tries. Every single field goal attempt for Rutledge this season has been a 3-pointer.
This past week against UMBC, Rutledge broke Nicholls’ single-game 3-pointer record with 10 made 3’s.
Also prominent offensively for the Colonels are transfers Roddy Peters and Tevon Saddler, who are proving to be worth the hype.
Peters is a former five-star recruit who signed with Maryland out of high school. He averages 20.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game for the Colonels.
Saddler is a former All-Conference player at UNC-Greensboro. He’s carried that success to Nicholls, averaging 17.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game so far this season.
“They have a chance to be two of the better players that I’ve coached,” Riley said before the season.
That’s high praise. At Clemson, Riley coached several pro players.
The challenge for Nicholls will be fixing its defense – something the team hopes to do in the coming weeks before beginning play in the Southland Conference.
Sure, Nicholls scores 94.2 points per game and that’s nice.
But they also allow 92.5 points per game, including allowing opponents to shoot 48.9 percent from the field this season.
The Colonels are forcing an adequate amount of turnovers, but aren’t successfully stopping penetration, which is limiting their ability to force opponents into difficult shots.
The Colonels will have two more shots this week to fix some of their mistakes – first against UL-Lafayette on Friday and then against Idaho on Sunday. Friday’s game tips off at 7 p.m. and Sunday’s game is at 6 p.m.
Both games are at Stopher Gymnasium.
COLONELS WOMEN WANT TO FIX CLOSE LOSSES
Nicholls State University’s women’s basketball team has proven in the early stages of the season that it can compete with major-conference opponents.
Now, they have to find a way to seal the deal and win those games.
The Colonels are 2-4 on the season after a 1-1 showing at the SEMO Thanksgiving Classic over the weekend.
For Nicholls, the schedule has been tough, but the Colonels have hung tough. They lost to SMU, Jacksonville, LSU and Bradley – none of the games were lopsided.
On Saturday, the Colonels delivered a whopping, beating Evangel 72-55 – a game that wasn’t as close as the scoreboard would indicate.
The Colonels led 63-36 at the end of the third quarter, then played backups late, which allowed Evangel to shave points off the lead.
Cassidy Barrios led the Colonels in scoring with 17 points. She also had six rebounds, five assists and three steals in 29 minutes of play.
With the win, Nicholls will now play a two-game week.
The Colonels will face SUNO at home today at 11:30 a.m.
The team will travel to take on Jackson State on Saturday. No tip-off time has been set yet for that game. Nicholls will then take off 13 days for final exams before returning to play on Dec. 15 against Mississippi Valley State.
Southland Conference play begins on Dec. 28 against Northwestern State. •
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