At halftime, Nicholls was down by seven points.
Less than four minutes into the second half, the Colonels were down by 14 points. Slightly less than nine minutes into the second half, Nicholls was down by 20 points.
That’s what McNeese State, the top team in the Southland Conference, can do to you in a matter of minutes.
Once the Cowboys had established the 20-point edge, it was just a matter of the final score. The final score of 74-47 served to further solidify McNeese atop the Southland.
The win improved McNeese to 12-1 in the SLC and 23-3 overall. Nicholls, which entered the conference in sole possession of second place, fell to 8-4 in the league and 13-12 overall.
“It extends us a little bit (atop the SLC), but it’s not done yet. We still got a lot of work to do. We still got to finish this thing off and so we’re going to get back to work this week. We’re going to enjoy our bye on Monday and get back to work,” McNeese coach Will Wade said.
Not that McNeese needed it, but the Colonels gave the Cowboys a lot of help. In the first half alone, the Colonels turned the ball over 13 times, giving McNeese a 14-1 edge in points off turnovers.
Over the entire 40 minutes, the Colonels turned the ball over 21 times, leading to a 23-3 edge for McNeese in points off turnovers.
“Coming into the game, one of the keys to the game was to have 12 or less turnovers,” said Nicholls assistant coach Dayshawn Wells. “Obviously in the first half, it kind of went against our game plan. The big thing in the first half was they had seven turnovers at half. I think the turnover battle kind of evened itself out in the first half.
“In the second half, I felt like we couldn’t even get a shot sometimes. We were playing a little too deep to the shot clock and we turned it over way too much. In the second half, we couldn’t make a shot.”
First-year Nicholls head coach Tevon Saddler left Stopher Gym without speaking with the media.
Along with the turnovers, the McNeese defense also gave fits to the Colonels in other ways.
Nicholls was held to 27 points below its season average in conference play. Colonels who routinely reach double figures in scoring were held in check.
Diante Smith managed 13 points for Nicholls. He entered the game second in the SLC, 17 points per outing. Rob Brown finished with 10 points, five below his average.
Jamal West was held scoreless, and Byron Ireland was limited to five points.
“We played really good defensively. I thought we flew around,” Wade said. “We were able to really, really pressure the ball and get up underneath them. And our traps were effective. So I was really proud of our guys’ defensive effort.”
“On the defensive end of the court, they did a pretty solid job keeping us the one shot and just pressuring and just rotating as a team. They did pretty good on that and I felt like if we would have just slowed down and seen the court more and handled it better, we would have had a better opportunity at winning the game,” said Smith.
The Cowboys’ point totals were not on the high end either but were evenly spread.
Christian Shumate had a double-double for McNeese, scoring 12 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. D.J. Richards and Javohn Garcia added 11 apiece, while Antavion Collum chipped in 10.
Even with the 13 turnovers and McNeese’s 14-1 edge in points off of turnovers, the Colonels were down only seven points at halftime.
“We didn’t finish a lot in transition. We turned the ball over some in transition. We missed a lot of easy ones in transition. That really hindered us in the first half from being able to pull away.”
Cutting down the turnovers and getting off to a quick start to the second half could have quickly put Nicholls back in the game. Instead, McNeese opened by scoring the first seven points in taking their biggest lead of the contest at 14 points.
Shahada Wells scored on a backdoor play to open the half. Following a Shumate free throw, Richards knocked down a 3-pointer. Garica added a free throw, and the Cowboys had their 14-point edge.
“We went in at half with 13 turnovers and we were just trying to come out and play with confidence and just slow the game down. We were all excited. Then came back out and they just went on a big run out the gates and we can’t stop the bleeding,” said Smith.
Two Brown free throws and a 3-pointer by Smith stopped the McNeese spree, but the Cowboys were about to do on another run to put the game away.
Right after Jalen White entered the game, he connected on a 3-pointer to pull Nicholls to within 10 points at 40-30.
The Cowboys answered by scoring the next 12 points.
Mike Saunders scored on a three-point play. Shumate and Collum each added a free throw. Garcia scored on a drive to the basket, Collum hit a 3-pointer and added another basket to put McNeese on top 52-30 with 9:37 left in the game.
The largest lead for McNeese was 29 points when T’John Brown scored on a follow-up with 26 seconds left in the game before Quinn Strander hit two free throws to make the final 74-47.
Nicholls was 7 of 29 (24.1 percent) from the field in the second half, and 15 of 48 (31.3 percent) for the game.
The Cowboys shot 16 of 25 (64 percent) from the field in the second half and 27 of 51 (52.9 percent) for game.
The teams traded baskets for most of a low-scoring first half with neither team maintaining a lead of more than three points, until a late spree by McNeese to give the Cowboys a 29-22 halftime lead.
Two free throws by Smith gave Nicholls an 18-16 lead.
The Cowboys then went on the best run of the game, scoring 11 straight points.
The first six points came from C.J. Felder all on baskets in the paint, including a slam dunk.
With McNeese leading 25-18, a follow-up dunk by Shumate gave the Cowboys their biggest lead of the game at nine points, 27-18, with 2:22 remaining in the first half.
Nicholls ended the run on two free throws by Rob Brown at the 2:16 mark. They were the first points for Nicholls since Smith’s free throws – a span of 4:37.
Strander drove the baseline for a basket, the only points other than free throws, scored by Nicholls over the final seven minutes of the opening half.
Two free throws by Javohn Garcia gave McNeese its 29-22 lead at halftime.