The Nicholls State basketball team proved to be anything but a pushover Saturday afternoon as a late fill-in opponent for LSU’s canceled game with Texas Southern.
In fact, LSU had to work extra hard for much of the game to fend off pesky Nicholls State 86-80 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Playing for the first time in 12 days and without star point guard Javonte Smart, who was unavailable due to COVID protocols, LSU struggled at times against a Nicholls team that hadn’t played since Dec. 1 after having five consecutive games canceled.
LSU (5-1) saw an 11-point second-half lead shrink to just three on five occasions in the final 13 minutes to throw a scare into the fans who made it to the PMAC.
But the Tigers regained control each time to take their fourth win in a row in the final tuneup before Southeastern Conference play starts Tuesday night against Texas A&M.
“We expected it to be a battle,” said LSU coach Will Wade, who set up the game just 48 hours earlier after Texas Southern canceled with COVID issues. “Nicholls played us tough last year and we won by 10.
“They play hard, they’re scrappy. (Coach) Austin (Claunch) has done a great job there.”
Nicholls, which came out hot and trailed just 44-39 at halftime after shooting 53.3% from the field, cooled off quite a bit in the second half to 40.0% but still managed to give LSU a tough time.
The Tigers, who shot 51.5% in the first half and 60.9% in the second, got the lead back up to 11 points with 17:50 remaining on a 3-point basket by guard Cam Thomas.
But at that point, Nicholls State (2-4) refused to go away and whittled the deficit down each time Wade’s team tried to pull away.
The Colonels trailed by just five at 85-80 with 39 seconds to go after a 3-pointer by guard Jeremiah Buford.
“We knew they had a few good shooters,” LSU forward Trendon Watford said. “A team like that, of course they’re going to come in and play in their home state. So we knew it wasn’t going to be a blowout or anything like that. We did a good job overcoming adversity.”
Thomas scored a career-high 29 points to lead the Tigers, and Watford, who returned after missing one game with an ankle problem, had 22 points on a 9-of-10 shooting day. He also led the team with nine rebounds and six assists in Smart’s absence.
Darius Days added 15 points and eight rebounds for LSU in its first outing since an 88-66 victory over Sam Houston State on Dec. 14.
Thomas, who had been in a bit of shooting slump in making just 14 of 38 field-goal attempts in the three games prior to the layoff, was 10 of 21 from the field.
“I just had a few off-games … that’s what happens to shooters,” said Thomas, who leads the Tigers with 21.6 points per game. “They’re going to try and run me off the (3-point) line. So that’s just me working on my game and taking what they give me.”
Nicholls State was led by Damien Sears’ 20 points, while Buford had 14 and Ty Gordon 12. Sears also led the Colonels with nine rebounds.
Claunch’s team outrebounded LSU 37-34 with 17 rebounds coming on the offensive glass, which was one of the deficiencies Wade pointed to that helped Nicholls stick around.
His team’s on-ball defense, which Wade said was lackadaisical, was another.
“Our transition defense kept them in the game in the second half,” he said. “They just blew right by us. In the second half, we couldn’t guard them in the halfcourt and they got way too many easy shots in the paint.”
Even though LSU has been limited in practice and had three games canceled or postponed after having to pause for COVID-19 and contact tracing protocols, Wade said there were no excuses for his team’s struggles.
He said having to play, and having to play hard to win thanks to Nicholls’ feistiness, will hopefully help LSU as the Tigers dive into their SEC schedule.
“We scheduled this game to knock off some rust, so I’m glad we scheduled it,” said Wade, who missed his team’s last game after tesing positive for the coronavirus. “We have a lot of things we have to get better at and improve in.
“Give Nicholls credit, I thought they played extremely hard. We had to work on our six-minute stuff at the end, so hopefully it helped us out.”
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December 27, 2020 at 04:07AM
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with Javonte Smart sidelined, LSU basketball team struggles to take down Nicholls State 86-80 - The Advocate
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