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December 4, 2013
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December 4, 2013
Nicholls basketball coach J.P. Piper was worried that a loss heading into the Thanksgiving holiday break could send his team into a tailspin to start the year.
Senior guard Dantrell Thomas made sure that didn’t happen.
Thomas scored 18 points, pulled in nine rebounds, and had nine assists to lead the way for the Colonels in the team’s most recent game – a 79-73 victory over former Southland Conference opponent Texas-San Antonio back on November 26.
The win was Nicholls’ first of the year after the Colonels (1-4) had dropped its first four contests, all on the road to Division I opponents: Auburn, North Texas, Troy, and Memphis.
Playing their first home game of the season, the Colonels started strong and led by double digits in the first half before getting a second-half surge to pull away. Nicholls never trailed the entire way.
Leading the way was Thomas. He made an assist on a lay-up underneath by Liam Thomas in the first half that sparked Nicholls to a 17-9 lead. Five of his assists came in the first eight minutes of the game, and six of his rebounds came in the first 12 minutes.
In the second half, he made two clutch free throws in the final minute to help Nicholls maintain a nine-point lead after contributing to a 3-pointer from Luke Doyle with an assist that netted the Colonels an 11-point lead with just under five minutes to play.
According to Piper, Thomas’ performance was a microcosm of his style of play. In a word: selfless. Piper said he admires Thomas’ willingness to help his teammates through his penetration and passing abilities.
“When you’re getting 18 points and dishing out nine assists, it just attests to what an unselfish young man he is,” Piper said of Thomas. “He just wants to win and I thought down the stretch he did a great job of communicating to his teammates. He was talking on the defensive end about what needed to happen. It was just leadership and we need him to do that every night for us.”
Thomas initially came to Nicholls from Many High School near Natchitoches. It was there that he was named to the all-state team and voted district MVP three times.
Upon joining the Colonels, he played in all 28 games as a freshman and made four starts. He’s gotten more playing time with each season and has steadily developed into perhaps the team’s biggest weapon.
His performance in Nicholls’ home opener helped the Colonels to an important victory and could give the team some momentum as it moves forward with road trips to San Francisco and Indiana set for later this month.
If nothing else, Thomas’ contributions against UTSA (1-5) provided the team with a much-needed good feeling after a game for the first time this year.
“It just came down to a team effort all-around and trying to contribute to this win,” Thomas said. “We really needed a win and it was our first home game, so we just had to do anything possible to get it. It gives us good momentum. It gives us a chance to string together a couple of big wins before we take a trip to San Francisco. It’s big right now since it’s the first win of the season. We hope it carries on.”
Playing power teams like Memphis and Indiana, the latter of which is scheduled for December 20 at Assembly Hall, also gives the Colonels some competition and provides a good measuring stick for how they’d like to improve, Thomas said.
“I feel good because those were some tough opponents we played and it gave us good experience to play power teams like that early in the season so we could develop and get straight to where we need to be,” he said.
With Thomas on the floor every night, Piper believes the Colonels have a chance to be competitive in every game.
In three of the last four games, Thomas has averaged over 33 minutes. His 27 points against North Texas on Nov. 14 was a career high, but his showing against UTSA may have been his most complete performance to date.
“He’s really just starting to figure out how he helps us win games,” said Piper. “He played with (Anatoly) Bose and he had a role there. He played with Fred (Hunter) and had a role there. Now he’s the focus and five games in, it’s starting to click with him. We’ve been telling him since the preseason that he had the potential to dominate the game. What doesn’t show up in the stat sheets is that he’s guarding the other teams’ best player. We talk about making an impact on both ends of the floor and he really did that to a high level (against UTSA).”
The Colonels are back in action Saturday at Stopher Gymnasium when they face Loyola. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
Following that game, Nicholls will take a week off for final examinations before traveling to play San Francisco on the road.
Nicholls senior guard Dantrell Thomas makes a move to the basket during a game last season. Thomas’ scoring and playmaking inspired the Colonels’ first win of the season against Texas-San Antonio.
