No. 1 McNeese State Shakes Jitters to Beat Nicholls, 61-54
By Brandon C. Williams
Southland.org
KATY, Texas - No. 1 moves on, but it wasn't easy.
Top-seeded McNeese State opened up a 16-point second half lead against eighth-seed Nicholls State, but needed two clutch jumpers from C.J. Collins and six free throws in the final 1:43 as the Cowboys finally subdued the Colonels 61-54 Wednesday evening at Merrell Center.
With the win, McNeese (20-10) advances to the semifinals, where they await the winner of Wednesday's late game between Texas State and Southeastern Louisiana.
"I was a little nervous, but we kept playing hard and figured out a way to win," said Cowboys coach Dave Simmons.
Things looked cut and dry when McNeese opened up a 51-35 lead over Nicholls (14-14) with 6:59 remaining. The Cowboys opened the second half with a 10-2 run that helped them overcome a sluggish start that saw them shooting 36 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.
Much of the success came from a zone defense that bottled up Nicholls State's long-range offense, which had hit just two 3-pointers in the game's first 33:12.
That was before Colonels coach J.P. Piper rolled the dice and gave freshman Chris Talkington an extended look. The youngster responded with 10 points off the bench, including a pair of treys during a 14-0 run that was capped off by a triple from Ben Martin, making the score 51-49 with 2:51 remaining.
Faced with a similar fate that befell second-seed Northwestern State earlier in the day, McNeese then turned to Collins, who stepped up for cold-shooting Diego Kapelan and all-conference first teamer Patrick Richard. Collins delivered a pair of baskets on consecutive possessions that finally cooled off the Colonels and began to squelch talk of a second opening round upset.
"I knew I had to take matters in my own hands," said Collins, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds.
Still, Nicholls refused to go quietly into the night. All-conference performer Anatoly Bose, playing in his last game in a Colonel uniform, scored the last of his game-high 25 points to make it 55-51 with :46 left, but four free throws from Stephan Martin and a pair from P.J. Alawoya sealed the deal for the Cowboys.
"Those were huge," said Simmons of the late free throws. "We have three guys in the top (13) in free throw shooting, so all the hard work on the line paid off."
Bose hit 8 of his 16 field goal attempts, but admitted he was never able to find the stroke that helped him lead the league in scoring.
"I wasn't surprised at what they threw at me," he said. "Teams have always done different things to slow me down. Tonight, I just never felt like I had a rhythm."
The Cowboys also tried to slow Bose down by making him more active on the defensive end, where he was matched up with McNeese big men Alawoya, Preston David along with Richard on occasion.
Both Piper and Bose were emotional when it came to talking about what each had meant to each other during Bose's time at Nicholls.
"I feel blessed. That's the best word to describe the experience I've had with him," said Piper. "It's been a real treat to have coached him."
Added Bose: "Just because I'm gone doesn't mean he's not going to stop coaching. He's going to continue coaching me all his life."
McNeese State Quotes
Coach Dave Simmons
Opening Statement: "We played a tough opponent tonight. Nicholls has been tough all season. Anatoly Bose is one of the tougher players to guard by far in this league. They had a great game against us. We didn't get out early, they dictated the tempo of the game in which we wanted to get the numbers in our favor, but weren't able to right away. We stuck to the task. We knew it was going to be a tough game going in, but we kept playing hard. We came out in the second half in a matchup zone and they didn't hit their shots which gave us some breathing room. But you can tell what a tough team they are. They finally got hot, they closed the gap on us and we had to fight for our lives to save it. The biggest thing is the first one is over with. And I think that's the hardest thing to get past in a conference tournament. We were able to hit our shots and finally get going. We look forward to our next opponent."
On Nicholls' shooting: "We started out in zone and they didn't hit and they only had four points. So I told our guys to ride it out until they started hitting and J.P. Piper started putting in guys that started knocking down a few shots and close the gap. But any coach in this league can tell you that if you try to guard this team man-to-man it's very tough, because they can turn the game around. My hat is off to Nicholls, they had a great game plan. Looking at them over the last three years we knew what they could do."
On playing Anatoly Bose: "If you can make Bose spend a lot of energy on defensive end, he may miss some free throws or a couple of jumpers, but I can tell you right now, we didn't do a good enough job of doing that. Bose still played very well. He had some big buckets and put backs. He kept them in the game, he's just a tough guy."
Patrick Richard
On physical play against Bose: "It was a little physical, but that's going to happen. Like coach said, we needed to be as physical as possible with Bose to keep him out of his game. The refs called it both ways, and for the most part it was pretty physical."
C.J. Collins
On scoring performance: "I knew they would guard Diego close, so I took matters into my own hands. I had some one-on-one matchups and was able to make some plays."
Diego Kapelan
On nerves in the first half: "We started with a few jitters, but after we calmed down the offense came together and we were able to run our offense and get the shots we wanted."
Nicholls Quotes
Coach J.P. Piper
Opening Statement: "Just extremely proud of our guys, how hard they competed and how well they represented our university. A few weeks back when Fred went down, we really came together and we took the number one team in this league down to the wire and I couldn't be more proud of our guys. Obviously we wanted to win the game but we tip our hats to McNeese, that's a great ball club."
On Chris Talkington: "Chris has a really bright future at Nicholls. Since the day he stepped on campus he's been able to knock down shots. We've worked hard to make him a better defender and to get him stronger and get him adjusted to the speed of the college game. I thought he did a tremendous job defensively tonight. It's has been his achilles heel, but I thought he was great tonight. But he was able to rebound and defend so we were able to leave him on the floor. He hit some big shots for us tonight."
Anatoly Bose
On McNeese State's defensive game plan: "I wasn't too surprised by the attention I got. I've had four years here and teams have tried to do a lot of different things to try to slow me down. I never really could get in a rhythm. They did a really good job defending. But in the end we were able to make some plays and I was really proud of the way our guys stepped up."
Chris Talkington
On playing with confidence: "Coach has always told me to be ready to shoot, be ready to knock down open shots when I get in the game. He's always had confidence in me, which gives me confidence when I get on the floor and I feel like that will grow in the years to come."