The Nicholls basketball team’s effort to move into a first place tie in the Southland Conference came up short Saturday night, as the Colonels fell to McNeese State 87-81. The Colonels, now 9-9 overall and 7-4 in the SLC, are one and a half games behind first-place MSU, who is 9-3 in the conference play.
This was the second time the Cowboys defeated Nicholls this season, as the Colonels lost 80-67 on Jan. 4 in Lake Charles.
Despite the loss, Colonel head coach Rickey Broussard said he was pleased with his team’s effort.
“My teams have won games before, and I haven’t been very happy with them. We’ve lost games before, and I haven’t been very happy with them,” Broussard said.
“Tonight we lost, and I was happy because I think they gave me a supreme effort. As long as they do that, then that’s all it’s about.”
Broussard said he also thinks this will not be the last time his team will face McNeese this season.
“Hopefully, we’ll get them in the championship game (of the SLC tournament),” Broussard said.
“We have to play our game throughout the rest of the season, and try to stay on their heels. They may have a bad game, which would allow us to get back into it.”
Broussard’s first defensive plan was to play a box-and-one defense on the SLC’s leading scorer Demond Mallet, which would match up Colonel point guard Sean Hughley on Mallet and allow the other four Nicholls defenders to play zone defense.
Broussard’s defensive strategy did hold Mallet to seven points under his season scoring average of 22.6.
However, the defense freed up open looks for Cowboy guard Tierre Brown, who scorched the Colonels for a game-high 28 points. Brown hit 4-of-6 shots from behind the arc and finished the game 11-of-22 from the field.
“Brown is an athlete who can do it all,” Broussard said. “He can beat you from the outside, or penetrate and score against your zone.
“If the game was decided on any one thing, I’d say it was my decision to go to a box-and-one,” Broussard added. “That was probably not the wisest move.”
The Colonels countered the tandem of Brown and Mallet with the Big Three of Arthur Haralson, Chris Bacon, and Marlon Green, who each contributed over 20 points.
Haralson and Bacon each put up 23 points and Green added 22. Haralson grabbed nine rebounds, while Green notched 11 to record a double-double.
“The past two games, I wasn’t shooting the ball well. Everyone from coach to my teammates told me to try and keep my confidence up,” Green said. “One of my friends gave me a lucky coin that had a prayer on it, so I put it in my sock and had a good game.”
Nicholls was down to McNeese 46-40 at the half, and was down by as much as 11 points in the second half before making a run at the Cowboys.
The Colonels went to a full court press to create turnovers and eat away at the MSU lead.
“Our 55-press put us in a position to win the game, but we couldn’t finish the job,” Broussard said.
A 3-pointer by Colonel Zach Ray at the 11:47 mark of the second half closed the Cowboy lead to three.
After a Haralson basket, Ray connected with another three to give Nicholls its first lead of the second half at 65-63.
With the lead exchanging hands between the two teams, jumpers by Green and Haralson gave the Colonels their last lead of the game at 75-73, before the Cowboys pulled away down the stretch.
One key that enabled the Colonels to play the Cowboys tough was rebounding. Nicholls out-hustled MSU on the glass out-rebounding the Cowboys 43-28.
“When you out rebound a team by that much, then you usually win,” Broussard said. “If not for the hot hands their perimeter players, then we win.”
Another aspect which helped the Colonels make a run against MSU was crowd support.
“The crowd was reminiscent of when we were making our late season run during the 94-95 championship season,” Broussard said. “This is what it’s all about to me.”
“It was a great college atmosphere, and I do appreciate the fans recognizing we do indeed have a great basketball team,” he said.
“The fans got behind us in the second half and gave us the added energy to make our run and almost pull it off.”
Nicholls 84 Northwestern State 74
Bacon was just four assists short of recording a triple-double in Nicholls’ 10-point victory over Northwestern State in SLC action Thursday night in Stopher gym.
Bacon’s line for the game was 23 points, 11 rebounds, and team-high six assists.
Joining Bacon as the Colonel’s leading scorer was Haralson, who also notched 23 points in 25 minutes.
Haralson’s lack of playing time was due to early foul trouble and two minor injuries. He went 9-of-11 from the field, while pulling down eight boards.
Earnest Porter and Hughley helped fill the scoring void created by Green, who played but was hindered with a stomach injury.
Porter had 11 points, and Hughley pitched in seven and four assists.
Northwestern State had four players reach double-digits in the contest.
The Colonels next game will be against Stephen F. Austin Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Stopher gym.
