The Colonels basketball team achieved three victories in their 90-81 Southland Conference home victory over McNeese Saturday night. Besides earning their first conference win of the season, the Colonels (6-11, 1-5 SLC) beat McNeese for the first time since March 4, 2001. Additionally, they snapped McNeese head basketball coach Tic Price’s 6-0 record against the Colonels dating back to the 2001-2002 season, his first at McNeese.
“I was real proud of our guys tonight,” Colonels head basketball coach J.P. Piper said. “I told them after the game I thought that was the best group effort we had all season. Tonight I thought we had a lot of guys show up, and I thought we played well as a team.”
It was also a good night for sophomore guard Stefan Blaszczynski. Blaszczynski, who had his breakout game in the season finale a year ago against the Cowboys when he led the Colonels with 21 points, did even better in his first meeting with McNeese this season.
Already having scored a career high of 24 points on two separate occasions this season, Blaszczynski topped that feat with a 27-point effort against the Cowboys, shooting 10-12 from the field, and 5-5 from three-point range.
His perfect night from behind the arc tied for the highest 3-point field goal percentage in Nicholls history. The only other time this feat was achieved was in 1990 when Scott Gauthreaux had a perfect 5-5 from three-point range.
Blaszczynski thought it was good that he had a banner night but was quick to give credit to the team.
“The team gave me the ball, and I was able to gain position,” Blaszczynski said. “I give them all the credit. I just finished the play.”
The game was nip-and-tuck from the very beginning as each team matched each other point-for-point. Both teams combined for 11 turnovers and 12 fouls in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Trailing 18-15 with 10:15 left in the first half, the Colonels embarked on a 14-4 run to take a 29-22 lead with 6:09 remaining.
Not to be denied, McNeese (7-10, 2-4 SLC) went on a 5-0 run to trim the lead to 29-27 with 4:58 left in the first half. Both teams exchanged buckets for the remainder of the half with the Colonels taking a 39-36 lead at halftime.
Blaszczynski put on a three-point shooting clinic in the first 5:13 of the second half. Knocking down three three-pointers, he helped lead the Colonels on a 13-4 run giving them their largest lead, 52-40, with 15:27 remaining in the game.
For the next 5:17, the Colonels’ lead stayed between 12 and eight points until McNeese went 5-0 to cut the margin to 62-57 at the 8:39 mark of the second half.
The Colonels got the lead back up to 11 via an 18-12 run to give them an 80-69 lead with 2:32 remaining in the game.
McNeese made one final push going on a 7-0 run to trim the lead to 80-76 with 1:30 left, but with time running out, the Cowboys were forced to foul.
Given the opportunity to extend their lead at the free-throw line, the Colonels ended the game scoring 10 straight free-throws to secure a 90-81 win.
Price said his team has not been playing with the same consistent aggressive defense as earlier in the season.
“There’s got to be some pride, defensive pride, to make a stop,” Price said. “We didn’t do it on a consistent basis. They had an answer for every run that we had, and they deserve a lot of credit.”
Blaszczynski led four Colonels in double figures with senior guard Willie Depron dropping in 17 points while junior guard Cyril Djoukeng had 12 points, and freshman guard Adonis Gray chipped in with 11 points. Senior forward Jason Wilkins led the team with eight rebounds.
Forward J.T. Williams led the Cowboys with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Despite being outscored in the paint, giving up 19 second-chance points and having their bench outscored 44-27, the Colonels were still able to get the win due in part to the 26 points they were able to score off 20 McNeese turnovers.
“I was surprised that we got 10 steals,” Piper said. “I was surprised they turned it over 20 times with the talent that they have on the perimeter. I look at those same stats and my gosh, we got out- rebounded. We got beat in the paint. Then you look at the free-throws, and I think that was the difference in the game.”
The Colonels return to action on Saturday when they host Southland Conference foe Texas State in a 5 p.m. match up.
