Dominating second half gives Lamar 75-56 win, season sweep of Colonels

When Nicholls cut a one-time 14-point first half deficit on the road down to two points by halftime, it appeared the Colonels might have positioned themselves to avenge an earlier overtime home loss to Lamar.

The Cardinals had something else in mind, dominating the second half. A 3-pointer by Cody Pennebaker gave Lamar its biggest lead of the game of 21 points with six seconds left in the game.

Michael Gray hit two free throws for Nicholls with two seconds left in the game to make the final 75-56 Saturday night in Beaumont.

The outcome, which snapped a four-game winning streak for Nicholls, left both teams 7-3 in the Southland Conference. Texas A&M-Corpus Christ also is at 7-3 in the conference behind one-loss McNeese. Lamar’s sweep of the series with Nicholls means the Cardinals would own any tiebreaker between the two teams.

A Mehki Collins dunk eleven seconds into the second half tied the game 30-30 but Nicholls was never able to gain the lead in the final 20 minutes of play.

After the teams traded baskets in the opening minutes of the second half, Lamar, winners of seven of its last eleven games, managed to rebuild a double-digit lead when a baseline drive by Jakevion Buckley gave the Cardinals a 46-36 lead at the 13:36 mark.

Jamal West hit two free throws following Buckley’s basket and the eight-point deficit would be as close as the Colonels would get in the second half.

Nicholls (12-11) managed to score a total of only 20 points over the final 14:26 of the second half.

A 12-point deficit for Nicholls ballooned to 20 when Lamar (13-10) went on an 8-0 run, culminating on an inside basket by B.B. Knight to make the score 72-52 with 40 seconds left in the game.

Diante Smith led Nicholls with 15 points and nine rebounds. Byron Ireland scored 10 points.

The Colonels lost the game despite holding two of Lamar’s top four scorers without a point in the first half. Terry Anderson, who went into the game averaging 12.9 points per game, and Adam Hamilton, who was scoring at an 11-point clip, bounced back in the second half to finish with 10 and eight points, respectively. Hamilton finished with a team high eight rebounds.

Buckley scored 15 for Lamar, Pennebaker 14, and Knight 10.

Nicholls shot 19 of 52 (36.5 percent) from the field, including only 5 of 23 (21.7 percent) from 3-point range.

Lamar hit 28 of 59 shots (47.5 percent), 17 of 27 (63 percent) in the second half. The Cardinals were 11 of 24 (45.8 percent) from 3-point range.

The Cardinals opened the game by outscoring Nicholls 17-4 to take an early double-digit lead.

After the game was tied 4-4, the Cardinals scored the next 13 points, taking advantage of 3-pointers by Chris Pryor, Pennebaker, and Buckley.

A short jumper by Valentin Catt gave Lamar its biggest lead of the half at 15 points, 24-9, at the 10:46 mark of the opening period.

The Colonels opened the game 0 of 6 from 3-point range before Smith hit a shot from distance to make the score 24-16 and ignite a Nicholls rally.

Down 27-16, Rob Brown hit a pair of 3-pointers to pull Nicholls to within 27-22.

Trailing 30-22, the Colonels took advantage of a cold-shooting performance by Lamar down the stretch of the first half.

The Cardinals failed to score over the final 5:59 of the game, Meanwhile, two free throws by Ireland, a layup by Ireland, and two free throws by Smith allowed Nicholls to trail only 30-28 at halftime.

Nicholls enjoyed a 14-2 edge in points in the paint in the first half.