Jacks Best Nicholls in Senior Day Thriller

Saturday, February 21

Nacogdoches, Texas

5:00 P.M.

Stephen F. Austin

25-3,18-1Southland

Nicholls

11-17,10-9Southland

Nicholls

SFA

Photo by: Elisabeth Thornquist

Jacks Best Nicholls in Senior Day Thriller

2/21/2026 9:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

SFA holds off Colonels as Thompson finds Colonel for late bucket, 13th-straight win

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – It took all 40 minutes for Stephen F. Austin on Saturday night inside an electrified Sawmill as the Jacks used a late bucket, a running floater that tickled twine from Jerald Colonel on a helper from Keon Thompson who broke through a double team in the corner, to dismiss Nicholls 81-78 for a 13^th straight win. The Jacks remain unbeaten inside William R. Johnson Coliseum with a 15-0 record and improve to 18-1 in Southland Conference play holding a two-game lead with three to play.

The contest was tied at 45, SFA led by 11 at 59-48 following a 14-3 run, but the Colonels, on the back of a 60.7% shooting effort in the second half, rallied all the way to tie the game at 78 with 65 seconds left.

SFA fended off the visitors down the stretch as a bloodied Narit Chotikavanic scored inside to keep the lead at nine prior to the under-8 stoppage. Lateef Patrick, who led the Jacks with 20 points, followed his own miss with a shot off glass moments later and with the clock closing in on the five-minute mark, Ahamed Mohammed converted an and-1 opportunity to increase the lead to 72-62.

The under-4 media timeout was triggered by a #15-clad Chotikavanic who sank a three-ball nearside corner pocket to push the Jacks back up by nine at 75-66. At the 2:46 mark, Patrick hung in the air on a drive down through the paint and finished as the SFA lead moved to six at 77-71.

A huge hustle play from Chotikavanic with around 90 seconds remaining resulted in the already banged up sophomore getting on the floor and forcing the ball out of bounds off a Nicholls player after the Colonels attempted a lengthy outlet pass following an empty SFA possession. The Jacks would come up empty again on the next trip down the floor but ate up another 25 seconds in game time.

The Colonels opened with back-to-back threes to set the stage for a half that would see the two sides combine for 16 made three-point attempts with nine coming from the host. After Patrick bucketed SFA's first points on a mid-range jumper, the Jacks engineered a 13-0 run to lead by seven as Kam Burton, Patrick and Thompson all hammered triple tries in consecutive possessions, before Chrishawn Christmas grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback basket.

Nicholls used another 6-0 run, this time in just :34 seconds to pull within 18-17 at the under-12 media. The Colonels took leads at 19-18, 22-21 and 27-26, while during that span the Jacks, two assists from Marcus Scurry and one from Colonel, found Burton camped in the corner and the trigger man made Nicholls pay hitting a trio of trifectas in stretch of 2:16 of play with his last putting SFA up 29-27.

Nicholls' Jalik Dunkley did just that to tie the game at 29, but Thompson issued a smooth helper to a streaking Christian Green inside for a 31-29 advantage, a lead the Jacks would not relinquish, with the Colonels tying the game at 34, before SFA carried a 39-34 lead into the intermission. Mohammed nailed a three and Thompson netted a pair from the stripe as part of the 5-0 run to close.

POSTGAME NOTES

The Jacks claim the regular season series over the Colonels adding Saturday's home win to a 79-62 victory in Thibodaux on January 19
It is the seventh win for SFA against Nicholls in the last ten meetings and the 20^th inside the Sawmill since the start of the 1984-85 season
The victory moves the Jacks' winning streak to 13 games: the longest by the program since 2019-20 and the longest league streak since the same season
It is the 18th SLC win this season; the most since the 2019-20 campaign
The Jacks move to 15-0 at home; the first season with 15+ home victories since 2019-20
Nicholls shot 54% from the floor and made half of its 26 attempts from three
SFA knocked down 13 threes marking the fifth game this season with 13+ makes from range
The contest featured five tied scores and seven lead changes
The Jacks finished +16 in second chance points and +9 in offensive rebounding
SFA has made 12 or more free throws in each of the past six games
Thompson finished with 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting with six makes from the stripe and he delivered a season-high nine assists
Patrick's 20 came on 7-of-18 shooting with two assists and two steals
Burton followed with 15 points as he made five three-point shots for the third time this season
Chotikavanic added a tough 11 on three makes from range
Colonel grabbed seven boards and picked up three more blocks to go along with two steals
Mohammed finished with six points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals

UP NEXT
The 'Jacks stare down the regular season home finale on Monday night inside the Sawmill as SFA plays host to New Orleans. Tip-off against the Privateers on February 23 is set for 6:30 p.m. Live coverage links are available at www.SFAjacks.com.

#AxeEm x #WinTogether

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#AxeEm x #WinTogether