Men’s basketball will head back to the gym this week to prepare for Southeastern after dropping both games on their latest road trip that saw the Colonels face Central Arkansas and Oral Roberts.
The pair of losses knocks Nicholls down to fifth place in the Southland Conference and a .500 record.
Head coach J.P. Piper put part of the blame on his rotations in the loss to ORU.
“We just ran out of gas,” Piper said. “We had situations where we brought guys off the bench that, in my opinion, weren’t ready to play. We made a deadly decision to try to ride what we had on the floor. We were exhausted at the end and couldn’t make stops.”
Despite the loss, Piper felt his team performed much better against the Golden Eagles compared to earlier in the season, even if the scores were similar.
“I’m not discouraged,” Piper said. “I just went in and told them not to be discouraged. We are not a finished product. There are a lot of positives, a lot to build on. The final product needs to be on the floor in March in Katy, Texas.”
Senior guard Fred Hunter was asked to handle ORU forward Damen Bell-Holter, a task that Piper felt Hunter rose to exceptionally.
“We told Fred he had to go at this guy every chance he had,” Piper said. “I think you saw what Fred Hunter was capable of.”
Hunter finished with 33 points and seven rebounds, a stat line he would top the following game at UCA with 36 points and 11 rebounds in another losing effort. The two performances were enough to earn Hunter his second Southland Conference men’s basketball player of the week award this season.
Against UCA, the Colonels were able to get within three but were unable to tie the score with a last second shot. Nicholls led by 15 early in the game before a 8-30 shooting performance in the second half evaporated the Colonels’ lead. Besides Hunter, only two Nicholls players converted a field goal in the second half.
“We were good enough to win the game,” Piper said. “We just didn’t do a few things here and there. There is not much margin for error on the road. They had 25 second chance points and 17 points off turnovers. You cannot do that on the road and expect to win games.”
With a 2-11 road record this season, the team has struggled on the road, though they will finish off the conference schedule with five of their nine remaining games in Thibodaux.  
Southeastern comes in winning two of their last three, good for fourth in the conference. A win could put the Colonels back in the upper half of the conference standings as the schedule wraps up.
According to Piper, his squad will get back to basics before beginning a three game home swing this Saturday.
 “We’ll work on passing, shooting and maybe even scrimmage before we start looking at Southeastern, Piper said. “Then we’ll go out and see if we can get one in Stopher.”