Good start to second half sparks Colonels to 73-66 win over visiting Northwestern State

Nicholls came up with what it needed to open the second half of its game against Northwestern State on Monday night on Broussard Court at Stopher Gym.

The score was tied 35-35 entering the second half and the Colonels and Demons traded baskets early.

With Nicholls leading 40-39, Byron Ireland drove for a basket. Jamal West stole the ball on the Demons’ next possession and Ireland hit a 3-pointer as part of a run that would give the Colonels an eight-point advantage at 47-39.

“I was just trying to get out, have fun and get out in transition to get some easy buckets,” Ireland said of the mini run.

“At halftime, Coach (Tevon Saddler) jumped us. We had to do something about it. We didn’t want to deal with what will happen afterwards. We will do whatever we can to get this game,” West said of the Colonels’ improved play in the second half.

From that point on, the Colonels never allowed Northwestern State to make it any closer than a two-possession game as Nicholls went on to take a 73-66 victory.

“I think we just had to focus on our rebounding and getting out from there. We knew as a team we wanted to go out and stop them because they weren’t going to run much,” said Ireland.

The win improved Nicholls to 7-2 in the Southland Conference and 12-10 overall. Northwestern State fell to 4-6 in the SLC and 6-17 overall.

“The second half, I was proud of our effort the way we came out and played. I thought the first half, Northwestern made a statement just coming out and throwing the first punch. That’s something I noticed in about the last five games. Our game plan was being able to survive the first points in the first two medias (timeouts), so they did a heck of a job, especially Cliff Davis. I think he made five threes in the first half,” said Saddler.

Winning allowed Nicholls to stay within one game of SLC-leading McNeese.

“We’re cherishing every moment that we get, just one game at a time. We’re loving it. We love winning. So we’re going to do whatever we can to protect that,” West said.

The closest the Demons would get in the second half was five points at 57-52 on a three-point by Duane Posey with 10:02 left in the game.

Leading by eight points, the Colonels built their biggest advantage of the game at 13 points following a driving basket by Michael Gray Jr. and a Gray 3-pointer to make the score 67-54 with 6:13 left in the game.

The Colonels spread the scoring around West and Gray each had 17 for Nicholls. Smith, who scored 14 points in the first half, finished with 16 points. Ireland added 11 points. Smith had eight rebounds and West seven.

It was the second-straight game for Gray to reach double-figure scoring and third time this season. In the Colonels’ 83-73 win two days earlier, he scored 12 points for his best-scoring output in several games.

“Just building on the last one. Like I said, the coaches give me confidence. Players give me confidence. They’re just telling me to be me,” said Gray.

Davis scored a game-high 25 points for Northwestern State and Chase Forte 17. The duo scored the bulk of the points for the Demons in the first half, but Forte was limited to five points over the final 20 minutes.

“Just not losing him,” Gray said of the key to holding down Forte in the second half. “I think we lost him a lot in the half. He could shoot it. That’s one thing that I saw firsthand, he can shoot it.”

“We were just more locked in. We knew we had to pay extra attention to him. We locked down extra for the second half,” West said of dealing with Forte.

“We were attacking the bigs and getting them in foul trouble. That was our main goal for real and watching them crumble from there,” Ireland of containing Forte and the Demon offense in the second half.

Posey and Braelon Bush had 11 points each for the Demons. Posey led the team with six rebounds.

Nicholls led for a total of 1:12 in the first half after falling behind early.

With the score tied 30-30, the Colonels gained their first lead of the game of 33-30 on a 3-pointer by Smith at the 2:23 mark of the opening quarter.

By the 1:11 mark it was gone when Davis connected on a 3-pointer of his own, putting the Demons on top 35-33.

Gray hit two free throws with 57 seconds left, leading to a 35-35 tie at halftime.

Smith had 14 points for Nicholls in the first half, while Davis and Forte did the bulk of the scoring for the Demons. Davis and Forte combined for 27 of Northwestern State’s 35 points in the opening half.

“Diante, he’s just a Jack-of-all-trades. He does so many different things for us. He may have a stretch where he jumps up and banging and gets five points. He may have a stretch where he gets three assists. He’s such a good player and I’m just fortunate enough to have him,” Saddler said.

The Demons scored the first five points of the game and never trailed until Smith’s 3-pointer with less than three minutes remaining in the opening half.

Northwestern State’s biggest lead of the half was nine points at 28-19 when Forte knocked down a free throw with 5:11 left before halftime.

The Colonels began to cut away at the deficit.

Down by nine points, a 3-pointer by Smith from the left corner of the baseline, and a conventional three-point play by Smith got Nicholls to within three points at 28-25.

Each team enjoyed a brief lead in the closing three minutes before settling on a time at intermission.

The Colonels were 9 of 10 from the free-throw line in the first half and outscored Northwestern State 7-0 on second-chance points.