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HOUSTON – The HBU men's basketball team trailed by eight at the half but scored 50 points in the second period to drop Nicholls, 88-82, in Southland Conference action on Saturday night for the Huskies' fourth win in the last five games.
 
HBU (9-14, 5-7 SLC) got a career-best performance from freshman Benjamin Uloko and got double-figure scoring nights from four different players en route to the win. Uloko scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Huskies while sophomore Ian DuBose also finished with 16 points, 13 of which came in the second half.
 
Nicholls (11-14, 4-8 SLC) got out to an early 11-5 lead but back-to-back bucket from Stephen O'Suji and Jackson Stent quickly pulled the Huskies to within two. An 11-4 burst gave the Colonels a 22-13 lead with 12:11 left in the first half.
 
A few minutes later, a nine-point run by HBU that included six from Uloko evened things up at 27-27 with 7:58 on the clock. With 2:15 remaining in the half, an Oliver Lynch-Daniels free throw made it 36-35 in Nicholls' favor but the Colonels closed the first period with a 10-3 run that included a Gavin Peppers three at the buzzer and led 46-38 at halftime. Nicholls was 10-of-20 from three-point range in the first half.
 
The Huskies cut their deficit to three after a Jalon Gates three less than six minutes into the second period but the Colonels answered with eight-straight points to lead by 11, 61-50, with 12:33 to go in the game. From there, the Huskies turned it on with a 19-2 stretch over a five-minute period of the game with 10 of those points coming from DuBose, leaving HBU ahead 69-63 with less than eight minutes to go.
 
Nicholls worked its way back to within one after a Jeremiah Jefferson trey connected at the 4:39 mark, making it 74-73 in HBU's favor. The Huskies pulled back ahead by six on a Braxton Bonds fast break layup at the 2:35 mark and HBU kept their lead between four and eight points the rest of the way.
 
Philip McKenzie scored 13 off the bench for the Huskies and grabbed seven rebounds while Gates added 10. Bonds ended the night with nine points, seven rebounds and four steals while Lynch-Daniels had eight points.
 
Nicholls was led by Jefferson and Peppers who both scored 22 while Danny Garrick added 14. Daniel Regis led the Colonels with eight rebounds in just 14 and a half minutes off the bench.
 
HBU held a 47-32 advantage on the boards with 15 of those coming on the offensive end and leading to 23 second chance points. 42 of the Huskies' points came in the paint while 39 of Nicholls' points came from beyond the arc. The Huskies shot 46.8 percent (29-of-62) from the floor while Nicholls finished the night at 42.3 percent (30-of-71).
 
The win moves HBU into a tie for seventh place in the Southland Conference standings along with Central Arkansas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
HBU remains at home for its next game on Wednesday, Feb. 20, when the Huskies host Northwestern State. The Demons are currently just a half game behind the Huskies in the standings.