HOUSTON --- Houston Christian couldn't stave off a furious Nicholls rally in the second half and ultimately fell to the Colonels 98-94 in Sharp Gym on Saturday afternoon. The overtime thriller was the Southland Conference opener for both schools.
The two teams traded blows for the first few minutes, tied at 10 at the first media. After falling behind 14-13 on a Jamal West Jr. layup, the Huskies put together a 11-4 run, highlighted by a nice give-and-go to the hoop by
Porter Bazil with a feed from
Bonke Maring to take a 24-18 lead with 10:20 left in the first frame.
Back-and-forth the squads would go for the next six minutes before another bucket from West Jr. tied things up at 35 with 3:13 to go before the half. HCU would respond, as
Jay Alvarez split a pair of free throws and got an offensive rebound putback to push the Huskies up three.
Pierce Bazil would drive the baseline for a strong finish with just over a minute to play, and HCU would head to the break up 42-37.
The second half began with HCU turning things up a notch. A dunk off a steal by
Michael Imariagbe got things going, and
Jay Alvarez and
Marcus Greene hit driving layups to make the score 48-39. A blocked shot by
Bonke Maring was followed by his own jump hook in the lane, giving the hosts their first double-digit lead, 51-41 with 16:37 to go. Greene scored again in the paint to make the lead a dozen and force a Nicholls timeout.
Tristan Moore's three-pointer moments later gave HCU a 15-point cushion, 58-43. The lead would hover around 12 for the next couple of minutes before the Colonels began to chip away. Yet another score from West Jr. got the visitors deficit back under double-figures with just over 12 to go, and moments later the HCU lead was down to four after Robert Brown III hit a triple.
HCU would get back-to-back scores from Greene to edge back on top, but a three-pointer from Diante Smith and a inside score from Mekhi Collins knotted things up at 71 with 6:50 to play. The Huskies answered back as a beautiful reverse by Greene capped off an 8-0 burst that put HCU up eight 79-71 just before the final media timeout.
Greene would knock down two charity shots to make the score 83-79 with 24 seconds to go, but Smith came right back with a bucket to cut the lead in half. After two missed free throws from HCU, Smith would hit a three-pointer from deep straight away, tying the game and sending it to an extra session.
Bonke Maring's second effort bucket off his own miss tied things up early in the overtime. Nicholls then pushed out to a five-point edge, before the Huskies came right back with five straight to tie things up at 92 with just 1:06 to go.
Byron Ireland hit two pairs of free throws, and Smith added two more, the final ones coming with 14 seconds to put the game on ice and allow the Colonels to escape Sharp Gym with the come-from-behind victory.
It is the eighth time in 18 meetings since HCU joined the conference in 2013-14 that a game with Nicholls has been decided by less than four points, and 12
th to be a single-digit contest.
The Huskies shot 50% from the floor, but just 2-14 from the arc and 63% from the free throw line. Nicholls shot 45.7 from the floor and 29.6% from the arc, but went 26-32 from the line for 81%.
HCU placed four players in double-figures with three eclipsing the 20-point plateau.
Bonke Maring had a season-high 22 points along with seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
Jay Alvarez returned to the lineup after missing three games, and had 22 points with six rebounds, and
Marcus Greene rounded out the 20-point trio with 21 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Michael Imariagbe added 14 points and eight rebounds, while
Nate Hudson had eight points, six rebounds and two steals while making his first start and playing a career-high 35 minutes.
Nicholls (6-8, 1-0 SLC) also put four in double-digits, led by Diante Smith and Jamal West Jr., each with 23. West had a game-high 10 boards and Smith added eight caroms while going 5-10 from long range. Robert Brown III added 16 points on 3-6 shooting from the arc. Byron Ireland had 14 points, going 8-8 from the charity stripe.
HCU falls to 2-10 overall and 0-1 in Southland play. The Huskies will now hit the road for three straight conference games, beginning on Monday night as they head down the coast to take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tip-off from American Bank Center is slated for 7 pm.
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