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KATY, Texas – Four times in the
final 17 seconds, the fates of both Sam Houston State and Nicholls State hung in the balance in a finish that left fans in the Merrell Center on a roller coaster of emotions until the final horn. In the end, it was the Bearkats who managed at least one more night of basketball.
Barely.
Dakarai Henderson’s driving layup with :00.8 seconds left gave Sam Houston State a thrilling 60-59 win over Nicholls on Thursday night, allowing the Bearkats to advance to the Men’s Basketball Tournament semifinals against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Friday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN3.
“Nobody panicked,” said Henderson, who played 24 minutes despite being hobbled with a variety of injuries. “What was going through my mind was try to get a good shot. I think I timed it pretty good. I was hobbling, but I was trying to run full speed. Jamal [Williams] saw me and gave me a perfect pass to lead me.”
Henderson’s game-winner narrowly eluded the hand of center Liam Thomas, an all-defensive selection, on its way to the basket, but the game wasn’t assured to the Bearkats until Colonels guard Jonathan Bell’s last-gasp shot fell short of the rim as time expired.
Nicholls (11-23) appeared to be on the verge of its first trip to the semifinals since 2009 after a pair of free throws from Thomas gave them a 56-53 lead with 1:32 remaining, but Albert Almanza tied the score with his second trey of the night at the 1:24 mark.
“It’s just one of those feelings that you have that you need a 3-pointer at that time,” said Bearkats coach Jason Hooten. “He’s made some big threes all year long. The reason I ran it to him is because he’s 6’6, so I knew that if somebody got there, he could shoot the ball over the top of them and get it off. It was great execution by our kids.”
Sam Houston then regained the lead when second-team all-conference pick Aurimas Majauskas’ jumper found the mark with 17 seconds left. The lead was short-lived, as T.J. Carpenter calmly drilled home a 28-foot shot to give the Colonels their final advantage of the night at 59-58.
Aside from the last second acts of offensive heroism, much of the second half was played in an offensive quagmire which saw both teams combine to miss 12 straight shots during one stretch. After both teams shot over 50 percent in the first half, defense became the watchword, as Nicholls hit just 26 percent from the field, while Sam Houston State managed to hit a mere 29 percent of their field goal attempts.
Despite being pushed to double overtime in Wednesday’s victory over McNeese State, Nicholls was more than game to answer the challenge.
“I feel like everyone came together,” said Colonels guard Quinton Thomas, who led the team with 12 points. “Even though you’re sore and tired, everyone just competed.”
Sam Houston State received a huge contribution from backup forward Torry Butler, who scored 12 points and added 12 rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench. Butler also grabbed four of the Bearkats’ 12 offensive rebounds and helped the team grab 10 critical points off second chances.
Nicholls had a four-game win streak snapped, yet coach J.P. Piper felt proud of how his team was able to overcome a slow start to come within seconds of moving one step closer to reaching the tournament finals for the first time since 1998.
“We never quit believing,” said Piper. “My guys played like champions. The score said we lost, but I couldn’t be prouder of how hard they competed.”
POSTGAME QUOTES:
Sam Houston State Head Coach Jason Hooten
On today’s game…
“Coming into this game, we felt like it would come down to what it did. We we’re hoping we’d be the one who hit the last-second shot. We played them back in January, but I know they’re very well coached. They won four games in a row to get into the tournament. I knew it was going to be a tough, grind-it-out type game. We’re kind of a mash unit right now. We went through a lot this season and just haven’t won a game like that all season long and yet we’ve won 18 games. I knew it was our turn to win a game like that. I don’t know if anyone really deserved to lose that game. I thought both teams played really hard, but didn’t shoot the ball extremely well. I’m just really proud of our team.”
Emotion with about two minutes left…
“My assistants wanted me to put Dakarai Henderson, but he’s been injured and hadn’t practiced all week. I know he can go out there and hit the shot and he just wasn’t moving too great. With about two minutes to go when Nicholls took that lead, he’s obviously second-team all-conference and our leading scorer for a reason and I decided to put him in at that time and you have to give him credit; he made a play.”
Sam Houston State junior guard Dakarai Henderson
On Nicholls 3-point shot to take the lead…
“Nobody panicked. We’ve been in that situations so many times this year, when someone gets a shot and we don’t get a good shot after that. What was going through my mind was wanting to get a good shot and know what time is on the clock. I timed it pretty well with the time management. I was hobbling, but I was trying to run. Jamal (Williams) saw me and he gave me a perfect pass to lead me.”
On moving forward…
“It feels great. I know a lot of teams hung up their jerseys this past week. It’s a great feeling to be able to play with these guys again. We’re looking at the big picture right now. We’re taking one game at a time. Everybody is stepping up, especially in my situation, the team stepped up and I really feel like I hurt them.”
Nicholls Head Coach J.P. Piper
On the second half…
“The only thing that comes to is how proud I am of our guys. We held them to 28 percent [shooting] in the second half. That’s probably one of the best 20-minute stretches of defense we’ve played all year. We never quit believing, just like last night, we never quit battling, we never quit fighting. Then their kid makes an incredible shot at the buzzer. I hoped we would match their toughness coming off of last night. I was worried fatigue, but my guys played like champions.”
On Sam Houston’s defense…
“I think their defense is that good. I think they made it very hard for us to have any rhythm. Our system wants to move the ball at a certain pace, and a certain flow, and they disrupted our rhythm and made it very hard to get the ball from wing to wing. They made it hard to get off the screens and make the cuts so we actually abandoned it late.”
Nicholls Graduate Center Kyle Caudill
On Nicholls’ defense…
“It was very physical. Everyone in the game did a great job of being tough and not backing down from anything really. I think we did everything great defensively we just came up a half an inch short.”
Nicholls Sophomore Guard Quinton Thomas
On the game winning shot…
“Up until the last second when he hit the shot, and it was an unbelievable shot, [I thought we had a chance to win.] I still think we had an opportunity to make it if I hadn’t had a full court shot. But I feel like we competed in the last 17 seconds and he just made a tough shot”