LAKE CHARLES – McNeese's attempt to tie or take the lead with four seconds remaining was never put into play when Nicholls kept the Cowboys from inbounding a baseline pass which resulted in a five-second violation and turnover. That helped Nicholls escape the Legacy Center with a 71-68 win over McNeese in front of 2,337 fans on Saturday afternoon.
 
Nicholls' Micah Thomas made one free throw but he second was ruled a violation, giving the Cowboys one more chance to tie the game trailing by three. But on the inbounds pass, McNeese's Trae English would be fouled with just over two seconds to play, sending him to the free throw line for a one-and-one, where he missed the front end and Nicholls got the rebound to finish off the game.
 
The loss was the fifth straight suffered by the Cowboys (5-15, 2-5) after beginning league play with two straight wins. Nicholls improved to 10-9 overall and 5-2 in conference play with its second-consecutive victory, both over the Cowboys in the last three days. The Colonels also extended their winning streak to seven straight over McNeese in the series.
 
Christian Shumate led McNeese with 18 points and five rebounds. Johnathan Massie added 16 points while Zach Scott scored 15. The Cowboys made 24 of 50 from the field, including 13 of 24 in the second half.
 
Caleb Huffman led Nicholls with 20 pointes while Latrell Jones added 18 and Pierce Spencer with 10. The Colonels shot 53 percent for the game (27 for 51). Huffman scored the final 11 points off field goals for the Colonels, including his step-back eight-foot jumper to give the Colonels a 70-68 lead with just over 10 seconds remaining.
 
Nicholls opened the game on an 11-0 run before the Cowboys got on the board with two free throws by Roberts Berze on a Colonels' flagrant foul. That seemed to loosen the Cowboys up as they battled to tie the game at 18-18 following Scott 3 and Massie two-pointer. Nicholls never lost the lead in the first half and went into the break with a 40-32 lead.
 
The Colonels scored the first for points of the second half to go up 44-32 and led 46-36 at the 16:56 mark when the Cowboys scored nine straight points behind buckets from Shumate and Scott, a couple of Berze free throws, and a fast-break layup by Donovan Oday that pulled the Cowboys to within 46-45 with 14:46 to play.
 
McNeese finally got over the hump when Shumate sank a paint ball to put the Cowboys up 51-50, then Scott followed a Nicholls miss with another three-pointer to make it a 54-50 advantage at the 10-minute mark.
 
With the Colonels trailing 56-53, Huffman went to work and scored eight straight points for his team, six of those off a couple of threes, and Nicholls regained the lead at 61-56 with 6:27 to go.
 
Massie snapped the run with a 3 of his own to cut the margin to two points, and two minutes later, Shumate hit a couple of free throws to put the Cowboys back on top 65-64 with 2:41 remaining.
 
After a Huffman basket gave the Colonels a 66-65 lead, Shumate made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game 66-66 with 1:51 to play. Jones put Nicholls back on top with a layup at the 1:29 mark but Massie responded with a quick layup off a Colonel 3-point attempt to tie it at 68-68 with 36 seconds to play.
 
McNeese will hit the road for the next two games when it visits UIW on Thursday and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next Saturday.