Southland Tournament Nicholls St. vs. Northwestern St. Postgame #basketball #ncaa #marchmadness

KATY, Texas – Once Nicholls began to exert its will inside, the Colonels’ path to the 2021 Hercules Tires Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship Game was secured. A dominant interior effort was enough for the top seed to finally shake off a relentless effort from fourth seed Northwestern State in an 88-76 semifinal win at Leonard E. Merrell Center on Friday evening, giving them a chance to win the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament against either No. 2 Abilene Christian or No. 6 Lamar at 8 p.m. CT Saturday. “They rose to the occasion,” said Nicholls coach Austin Claunch, who coached his first tournament contest. “It’s hard to win any tournament game, and for us to pull out and finish the way we did, that was great to see.” Third Team All-Southland forward Najee Garvin’s layup with 6:44 left snapped a 67-67 tie and gave Nicholls (18-6) the lead for good. Northwestern State (11-18) would get no closer than six points in the final 3:05 as the Colonels advanced to the Southland Conference Championship Game for the first time since 1998. “Coach told us when he came in that he was going to mold our team into a championship team,” said Kevin Johnson. “We’ve been to the tournament the last two years, and I feel like this year he put us in the best position possible.” “(In) ’98, I was a young kid watching Nickelodeon or something,” said Clauch. “I was a young kid in Houston, so being back here and playing for the championship in Katy is pretty special.” The Demons were faced with early exit of center Larry Owens, who picked up two quick fouls. With Owens in foul trouble, the door was open for Nicholls to pound the ball inside to 6’11” post Ryghe Lyons, who finished with 18 points as the Colonels owned a dominating 48-26 edge in points in the paint in route to their 16th win in their last 17. “We stress paint before every game,” said Claunch. Garvin added 14 points, while Andre Jones contributed 12, with both attacking the paint for most of their scoring. Unlike Thursday’s win over New Orleans, there was no fast start for Northwestern, who came out of the gate only shooting 30 percent while committing five early turnovers. There was also the issue of not being able to contain All-Conference third teamer Johnson, who scored 12 straight points to help give the Colonels a 26-13 lead at the 8:15 mark of the first half. Northwestern shook off the deficit and worked back into the game, moving within 32-28 at the 3:01 mark of the half after LaTerrence Reed’s trey and a jumper from Jovan Zelenbaba, who scored 11 of his 20 points in the first half. Despite the early struggles, Northwestern found themselves at halftime trailing only 39-36 due in part to Nicholls’ slump from long range. After their strong start, the Colonels finished just 4-for-18 from the three-point line in the first half. The Colonels went inside frequently to start the second half. Ryghe Lyons’ dunk at the 17:25 mark was part of a 14-5 run to open matters as Nicholls built a 53-44 lead by going 6-for-8 in the first five minutes after intermission. However, the Demons stormed back on a 14-4 run that was capped by an emphatic dunk from second team All-Conference guard Trenton Massner that gave Northwestern State a 58-57 lead with 11:42 remaining, its first advantage since scoring the game’s first two points. The lead reached 63-58 before Ty Gordon scored five straight points for Nicholls to tie the game at 63-63 with 9:01 remaining. “We did a nice job in every area of the game,” said Northwestern State coach Mike McConathy. “We just didn’t make our shots down the stretch. That was the biggest struggle for us.”