🆚 Nicholls State University
📆 Monday – February 16, 2026
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium – Houston, Texas
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🗒️ Game NOTES 
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Houston Christian University ends the quick two-game home stay looking to make it two straight wins as it hosts Nicholls State University on Monday night.
 
The Huskies are coming off a Sharp Gym thriller on Saturday. A soft runner on the right baseline by D'Aundre Samuels found nothing but the bottom of the net with 1.6 seconds remaining, helping HCU capture a hard-fought 61-60 victory over University of New Orleans in a Valentine's Day slugfest. HCU led by 10 with six to play before staving off a late comeback attempt, sinking the Privateers for an important win in their bid for the postseason.
 
Leading 39-38 nearing 10 minutes to go, the Huskies blitzed the Privateers with a 14-5 spurt over the next four minutes, capped by back-to-back hits from deep by Ryan Bartley and Trent Johnson. The latter was a deep connection from straightaway that gave HCU its only double-digit lead of the night, 53-43 with 6:08 to play.
 
From there, UNO made its one last push. The Privateers ramped up the pressure and came back with a runover their own. Cope had a monstrous dunk on the break to cut the lead to two, and moments later a three-ball plus the split of a pair of free throws by Coleton Benson tied things at 59 with 2:02 to play, finishing off the 16-6 burst. New Orleans then took a one-point lead, 60-59 as Churchill Abass split a pair of charity shots with 16 seconds left.
 
After a timeout with six seconds left, it was time for some Sharp Gym heroics, on this afternoon provided by Samuels. Taking the ball from the top of the key, the junior guard raced to the right baseline and lofted a short runner that tickled nothing but twine to give HCU the lead. A last-second heave from UNO was no good  as the Huskies snapped a four-game losing streak.  
Samuels paced a trio of Huskies in double-figures with 15 points on 7-10 shooting and added four boards, three assists and three blocked shots. Ryan Bartley went 6-12 for 13 points, while Demarco Bethea chipped in 13 as well. Trent Johnson went 3-7 from deep and Kylin Green added six assists. Demari Williams had a team high seven boards for the Huskies.
 
Craig Doty, the ninth head coach in program history, is now in his second season at the helm after guiding HCU to a 12-20 overall mark and 9-11 ledger in Southland Conference action in 2024-25. It was announced in early December that Doty has signed a contract extension through the 2029-30 season.
 
The Huskies doubled their success rate from the previous season, going from six total wins to 12 and from four victories to nine in conference play, finishing seventh in the league after being picked to finish last. HCU advanced to the Southland Tournament and saw Bryson Dawkins named All-Conference as just the second player in program history to pick up SLC First Team honors.
 
The Huskies are now 9-17 on the season and 5-12 in conference play. HCU is now in a four-way tie with UIW, East Texas A&M and Southeastern, one game back of Northwestern State for the eighth and final playoff spot. HCU has split the season series with UIW, and lost both to SLU. HCU will travel to play both Northwestern State and East Texas A&M for a second time this year next weekend, with the Huskies having defeated both in the first two games of the most recent homestand.
 
Elijah Brooks, who missed the first four games of the season and has not played since returning from the Christmas break, still leads HCU at 12.3 points per night while also chipping in 4.5 boards, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
 
Kylin Green is just behind him at 10.5 points to go with 4.0 boards while sitting third in the Southland Conference at 4.6 assists per night. He had a career-high 24 points in the loss over Thanksgiving week to Bellarmine and also registered a career-best 13 assists in the victory over ULM on November 13, the most in a game for HCU since Mike Moss had 13 against Chicago State in 2011.
 
Green flirted with a triple-double in the overtime home loss to Southeastern, finishing with eight points, nine boards and 10 assists. He had his third double-digit assist effort of the season with 10 in the last-second win over Northwestern State to become the first player with three in a season since Ricky Bennett in 2003-04. His six dimes vs. UIW put him at 104 to become the first HCU player to hit the century mark in a single-season since Ian DuBose had 111 during the 2019-20 campaign. 
 
Since the Christmas break, Demari Williams has provided a huge spark for the Huskies, first off the bench before then making his first start of the season at UIW. 
 
He has scored in double-figures 10 times in the 14 games since returning from the holiday. In those 14 games (13 starts) Williams is one of just two HCU players averaging double-digits, leading the Huskies in scoring (14 ppg) while shooting 47% from the floor, 34% from deep and 81% from the charity stripe. The redshirt junior from Fulshear is averaging a team-best 12.5 ppg as well as 4.0 rebounds in conference action.
 
Williams had a then career-best 19 points in the loss at then No. 3 Iowa State in the first game back (Dec. 29) and broke it five days later with his first-ever 20-point night, scoring 22 in the loss to UIW (1/3). That high then fell as well in the homestand finale, as Williams led a huge rally against UIW (1/27) with his 24 points on a career-best 13-14 from the free throw line. Williams averaged 23 points and six rebounds on 15-23 (65%) shooting from the field in the two regular-season games against UIW.
 
The recent four-game road stretch saw Williams average 15.5 points and four rebounds while going 20-23 from the free-throw line (87%).
 
D'Aundre Samuels has come on over the past 10 games, starting nine straight before coming off the bench against UNO. In that stretch, averaging 11.3 points, 3.9 caroms and 2.8 assists. On the four-game homestand (Jan 17-27), he averaged 11 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals, then upped his scoring to 12.8 on the four-game road trip. He had 15 points and the game-winning runner in the win over UNO on Saturday.
 
Ryan Bartley shot 9-19 from the arc on the four-game road stretch, including matching his career-best with four at TAMUCC on January 31. Bartley is now 15-35 (42.9%) from long distance over his last 10 games.
 
The Huskies have three players in double-figures overall on the season as Williams has joined the fray at 10.0 with his run over the last month-and-a-half. In conference action, the Huskies also have three players in double-figures with Williams (12.5) passing Elijah Brooks (11.5) for the team lead while Demarco Bethea averages 10.2 and also leads HCU on the backboards at 5.5 per in conference action. Bethea is one of three players averaging four or more caroms in SLC play. Bartley (9.2), Bartley (9.1), Samuels (8.5) and Trent Johnson (8.2), give the Huskies seven players at eight points or more.
 
On Thursday, Trent Johnson was selected to the E*TRADE Men's 3-Point contest "watch list" as part of 37th annual State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Friday, April 3. The event will be broadcast nationally on ESPN on Sunday (April 5). Johnson is currently averaging 8.5 points per game for the Huskies while knocking down 42.6% of his tries from long distance. He is 18th in the Southland Conference in three-pointers per game at 1.7 and is also hitting a robust 84.3% from the free throw line.

HCU and Nicholls have met 40 times over the years, with the Colonels now holding a 26-14 lead in the all-time series, including a streak of 12 in a row. The two teams hooked up on December 17 in Thibodaux, with the Huskies falling 79-64 in the final game before the Christmas break.
 
Tevon Saddler is in his third season at Nicholls. The Colonels come into Monday's action at 11-15 overall and in a three-way tie for third place in the Southland at 10-7 with A&M-Corpus Christi and UTRGV. Nicholls left San Antonio on Saturday with a 91-83 win in hand over Incarnate Word prior to its trip to Sharp Gym on Monday.
 
The Colonels are led by Jalik Dunkley, a 6'7 sophomore forward averaging 15.5 points and 7.3 rebounds in SLC action. 6'8 grad guard Jaylen Searles is averaging 13 points, 4.5 boards and 2.1 assists while shooting 34% from the arc, and Sincere Malone, a 6'8 senior forward, chips in 11.9 points, 4.6 caroms and and team-best 3.4 helpers.
 
The Huskies are 9-11 on February 16, last playing in 2023 in a 91-75 loss at Lamar. The last victory for the Huskies on this date was against Nicholls, 88-82 in 2019.
 
Following this two-game home swing against UNO and Nicholls, the Huskies will hit the road for the last road trip of the regular season with games at Northwestern State and East Texas A&M. HCU knocked off both teams in the 3-1 homestand at the end of January, with all three teams locked in a battle for the eighth and final Southland Tournament playoff spot.
 
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