THIBODAUX, La. - A 20-7 run to start the second half coupled with a 52.4 percent shooting percentage helped Nicholls hold on to defeat Abilene Christian, 62-59, Thursday night at Stopher Gymnasium.
The loss dropped ACU's overall and Southland Conference records to 8-10 and 2-5, while Nicholls improved to 10-9 and 3-3.
ACU led Nicholls by as many as 12 points and trailed by as many as nine, which proved to be a big enough deficit for the Wildcats as they could not complete their second-half comeback despite making it a one-possession game on four occasions.Â
Isaiah Tripp made two 3-pointers during the final three minutes, the last of which cut Nicholls' lead to 60-59 with 18 seconds to go. But unlike the Lamar game Saturday at Moody Coliseum, there would be no heroic finish this time around.
Instead, Nicholls' Johnathan Bell made two of his team's 11 second-half free throws at the 14-second mark to push his team's lead back to three, and then the Wildcats missed their final three shots – two by
Jaylen Franklin at the free throw line followed by a desperation shot at the buzzer by
Jaren Lewis.
The Wildcats shot 43.3 percent (13-30) in the first half, but could not keep up their pace as they entered halftime ahead by only four points at 32-28. ACU's lead soon vanished at the start of the second half as Bell (20 points) quickly tied the score by knocking down two successful jump shots in less than a minute. He eventually gave his side the lead for good at the 15:53 mark with a layup that made it a 38-36 game.
A Jahvaughn Powell layup with 13:01 remaining gave Nicholls its largest lead of the night nine points at 48-39, forcing the Wildcats to play catch up for the rest of the game.
ACU reduced its nine-point deficit to two at the 5:29 mark thanks to a layup by Franklin, but the Colonels scored the next four points on a pair of free throws by Ja'Dante' Frey and layup by Liam Thomas, who scored eight points to go along with 13 rebounds and school record nine blocks.
Tripp cut Nicholls' six-point lead in half with his trey at 3:22, and then a triple by
Jalone Friday made it a two-point game with 1:46 to go. But in between each Wildcat 3-pointer was either a Nicholls field goal or set of free throws.
Bell went 5-of-5 from the free-throw line and was the Colonels' leading scorer with 20 points. Frye totaled 16 points and Stevie Repichowski chipped in a dozen.Â
ACU was paced offensively and defensively by Friday and Lewis, each of who posted a double-double. Friday scored a game-high 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds, while Lewis scored 17 with 12 boards.
The Wildcats road trip continues next Thursday at Incarnate Word for an 8 p.m. game vs. the Cardinals.
