Nicholls State University - La Pirogue Yearbook (Thibodaux, LA)

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ern Louisiana. The largest crowd to attend a regular season home game saw the Colonels defeat rival Southeastern Louisiana 68-65, as 5,000 plus watched. The Colonels traveled to Hammond two nights later and easily beat the Lions, making it the first time Nicholls defeated the Lions twice in one year. After wins over Whitworth College and Tennessee-Martin, the Colonels' bubble burst as North Alabama and Northwestern took back-to-back conference victories from Nicholls. After our two late-season losses, our backs were against the wall and we knew we had to win the rest of our games, Landry noted. From that point on, we went out and played super basketball to win the conference and regional championships, he said. The Colonels took wins of 93-72 and 99-66 over Delta State and Mississippi College to win the GSC title. Against Mississippi College, a slam dunk midway through the second half by Richard Polk sent the crowd and the team to its first GSC title. Breaking around a Missouri-Lincoln Tiger, John Perry moves in during the first round of the NCAA South Regional playoffs. The Colonels won 97-79. Before Theo Barnes can stop him, Richard Polk works inside before early foul trouble put him onthe bench. Polk returned the next night in the win against Grambling to score 20 points, 'rite :3'3.P1.l.lgj uri '17 wins brings 21 new 1-asm-11, 'Ill ar3i3ant31un A Season to Remember

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Freshman Larry Wilson was temporarily stunned after going up for a rebound, Richard Polk stands over the Mathews native, who led the GSC in scoring. Taking the ball from Michael Talbert 1403, center Shelby Hypolite sets a shot, and earns an honorable mention posi- tion on the AP CDiv. llj All-American team. conference in scoring with a 21.1 average. Polk made the All-American squad for the second consecutive year as he led the GSC in rebounding with a 13.6 average. The Missis- sippi native averaged 166 points a game and led Nicholls in steals and blocked shots and finished second in assists. Coach Don Landry said, Our preseason goals were to win the GSC championship, which we did with an 11-2 record and to have the best won-loss record in the school's his- tory. indirectly, we wanted to get into the NCAA play otts, but didn't talk about it. We knew it we accomplished the first two, the third would probably follow. The season started with Nicholls taking a road victory from Spring l-lill in early November. The Colonels came home to a 98-91 loss to the University ot New Orleans. After that loss, the Colonels reeled oft 17 straight wins to set a new school record, During the streak they moved into the AP Top 15 for the first time in tour years, when they were ranked 14th on Jan. 29. Included in those wins were conference wins over contenders Jacksonville and Southeast- l I 1 i i E ll i l ,l 1 i 1 ii ii l l 1 1 l l l 1 l l i l i i 1 l i l T l 1 Q 1 i 1 1 I l i I i i .4 H i i 1 4 i r 1 i li ii

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