Feb. 9, 2008

Final Stats

Nicholls State and McNeese State waged a three point shooting contest here Saturday and the Colonels produced the best hand along with a 74-71 overtime Southland Conference victory.

There were a total of 24 three point shots (72 points) made during the game and 52 were taken. Nicholls connected on 15 of 29 - 10 of 14 in the second half - while the Cowboys made nine of 29 - 5 of 9 in the second half.

McNeese held a 29-23 lead at the end of the first half and the score was tied 65 all at the end of regulation.

It was at the free throw line that the Colonels actually won the game as all nine of their second half points came from free throws.

Ten times the Colonels went to the free throw in the overtime and nine times they connected. McNeese made two free throws in the overtime along with two field goals.

A three point shot that Diego Kapelan, the Cowboys' leading scorer in the game, missed was the final shot of the overtime with two seconds left.

"I thought that we played hard and we played good enough to win some of those other games that we lost," Cowboy head coach Dave Simmons said following the game. "We knew that Nicholls was a good shooting three point team and that was the difference in the game. We had the ball in the right hands at the end of the game, we just came up short.

"The effort was good for all of our players. We want to keep this same kind of effort but get a different result in our next game."

The loss, in front of 1,502 fans (largest of the season), drops the Cowboys record to 8-12 overall and to 2-6 in league play. Nicholls goes to 7-17 overall and to 2-7 in the Southland Conference.

Kapelan came off the bench to lead the game in scoring with 24 points. He made seven field goals in the game, all of them from three point range, and he added three free throws.

Also in double scoring figures for McNeese were Kleon Penn and John Ford with 11 points each. Jarvis Bradley, the team's leading scorer on the season, was held to seven points.

Nicholls had four double figure scorers led by 19 from Ryan Bathie. Justin Payne scored 14 and Anatoly Bose and Dominic Friend had 12 each.

Both teams claimed 37 rebounds, Penn leading the Cowboys with nine followed by eight from Rorey Lawrence.

McNeese jumped into the lead at the outset of the game and held a 14-5 lead at one time. The Cowboys were also out in front by nine at 27-18 with 2:57 left. Nicholls outscored McNeese 5-2 the rest of the way to trail by six at the half.

In the second period the Colonels put out a 34-17 run to go out by nine points with 8:37 left. A free throw by Ford with 34 second left in the half sent the game into overtime with the score tied 65 all.

Nicholls scored the first six points of the overtime and held on for the win when Kapelan missed his long range shot at the buzzer.

Philip and Dewanna Tarver of Lake Charles Toyota sponsored a pizza party for McNeese's international students before Saturday's ball game.