By JOURNAL STAFF
The ejection of Northwestern State’s leading scorer and rebounder Kendal Coleman was among 10 technical fouls Thursday night in Thibodaux as Nicolls State prevailed in a chippy Southland Conference matchup 69-58 at Stopher Gym.
The preseason league favorite Colonels (11-8, 1-1) closed the game on a 17-6 run out of a 52-all tie. The Demons (4-15, 0-2) made only one of their last 11 shots, and committed 14 second-half turnovers.
“We need to figure it out because we are a lot better than we’ve showed,” said veteran Northwestern coach and Bossier City native Mike McConathy. “We just haven’t been able to get over the hump of a difficult non-conference schedule.”
Coleman, a freshman from Captain Shreve, was called for a flagrant elbow violation with 17:25 remaining and drew a second technical protesting the call. Demon senior LaTerrance Reed was ejected with two seconds left after he and a Nicholls player got sideways.
The loss was the first time in four games that NSU’s outcome didn’t come down to the closing seconds. One of those nailbiters was an 80-79 loss in the Southland’s Tipoff Tournament in Katy, Texas Jan. 8 to UNO. The Privateers, 2-0 in the league, will host the Demons Saturday.
MEN
LSUS 79, LOUISIANA COLLEGE 74: At the Dock, the Pilots outscored the Wildcats 57-41 in the second half to claim the Red River Athletic Conference win. LSUS (10-6, 3-1) was led by Jeff Boyd’s 21 points, Royce Hunter had 19, Akeem White 12 and Kevin Norman 11. Kae’ron Baker led all scorers for LC with 29 points.
TROY 73, ULM 65: At Monroe, the Warhawks (10-9, 2-5) wouldn’t recover from a 14-point halftime deficit in dropping the Sun Belt Conference game. Russell Harrison’s 16 points topped ULM, Andre Jones added 13 and Koreem Ozier had 11. Troy (13-5, 4-1) got 18 points from Zay Williams and Dike Deen contributed 14 in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
WOMEN
LSUS 73, LOUISIANA COLLEGE 56: At the Dock, the Lady Pilots used a decisive third quarter to erase an 8-point halftime deficit to get the Red River Athletic Association win. LSUS (9-7, 4-0) got 20 points from DeAuja Thompson while Kiara Collins added 16 points. Kieyoomia Benally scored 16 for the Wildcats who fell to 8-5 overall, 2-2 in RRAC.
NORTHWESTERN STATE 68, NICHOLLS 64: In Thibodaux, second-year coach Anna Nimz saw her remade roster produce the first Southland Conference road win under her leadership. One of the 11 newcomers, Grambling transfer Candice Parramore, scored 20 for the Lady Demons (8-5, 1-1). NSU got the last of 10 lead changes with 1:43 left on a 3-point play by Jessica Todd and sank 5 of 6 free throws in the final 16 seconds to hold off the Lady Colonels (3-10, 1-1).
Photo: by MATT VINES/NSU
