THIBODAUX – Nicholls (21-10, 11-3 Southland) held off a late Privateer rally to win the Battle for the Southland Championship over the University of New Orleans (17-12, 10-4 Southland) on Saturday afternoon at Stopher Gymnasium.
HOW IT HAPPENED
With a loud crowd behind the home team, and the Colonels playing with the emotion of Senior Day the de facto Southland Regular Season Championship game looked to be snowballing on the Privateers late in the first half. Manny Littles' fast break dunk made it 37-24 in favor of the Colonels with five minutes to play before the break.
UNO would not quit –
Kmani Doughty nailed a three-pointer from the corner,
Derek St. Hilaire sank another triple, and
Jahmel Myers scored a pair of nice baskets inside cutting the Nicholls lead to 42-37 at halftime.
With 10:42 to play in the second half
Troy Green drove right at Ryghe Lyons – the league's best shot blocker – for an and-one layup that cut the Colonel advantage to a single basket, 60-58. A pair of free throws and a three-pointer later, all from Latrell Jones, and Nicholls was back up by seven.
Like they have all season, UNO responded. Green sank a pair of free throws between a pair of strong post moves by
Tyson Jackson and with 6:34 remaining UNO trailed by a single point. The Colonels turned to old faithful - Ty Gordon – who scored seven of the game's next nine points including a huge three with 2:49 to go extending the Nicholls lead back to double-digits 76-66.
St. Hilaire was fouled shooting a three by Gordon with nine seconds remaining and would sink all three free throws making it a five-point game 90-85, but Nicholls would see out the remaining few seconds to win their second-straight Southland regular season Championship.
INSIDE THE BOX
- St. Hilaire led the Privateers with 26 points and connected on 13-of-15 free throw attempts.
- Green finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and six steals – his third career double-double.
- Jackson finished with 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting with four rebounds.
- It was the first time the Southland regular season Championship was decided in a winner-take-all situation on the last day since Texas State beat USTA in 1999.
- In a battle of the league's two top scorers St. Hilaire finished with 26, but Nicholls' Ty Gordon scored 37 – the most by a Southland student-athlete this season.
NEXT UP
The Privateers will travel to Katy, Texas as the No. 3 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament to play on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. Fans can watch the game on ESPN+, or listen to Jude Young and Tic Price call the action locally on NASH 106.1 FM.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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@UNOPrivateers on Twitter,
@PrivateersMBB on Instagram, like
/PrivateersMBB on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.
