Senior guard Zay Jackson was named to the All-Conference team as announced by the Southland Office yesterday. Jackson was an honorable mention on the All-Conference team last season.
The Lion's Roar/Kelonda Dixon

This past weekend, the Lions basketball team took on its in-state rival Nicholls State University in their final game of the regular season, but fell short of victory. The team trailed the Colonels for the majority of the game, finishing with a 19-point gap at 45-64. 

On Saturday, Mar. 5 at 3:30 p.m. in Thibodaux, the Lions took on the Colonels. 

To start the game, freshman forward Moses Greenwood made a good layup with an assist from senior guard Zay Jackson, advancing the Lions 2-0. Following this was another successful layup by Jackson advancing the team to 4-3, but from this point forward, the Lions trailed the Colonels. A few minutes later in the 12th and 10th minutes, the team, with the help of two successful plays by junior forward Jordan Capps, tried to retake the lead by tying the score at 9-9, but they remained behind. At 8:19, junior center Dominic Nelson added two more points to the score, 11-13, but the team could not level the score. From here, the Colonels pulled further ahead by continuing to widen the gap with the furthest, in the first half, by 11 points at 11-22. In the fourth minute, the Lions narrowed the gap with back-to-back plays by Jackson, junior guard Joshua Filmore, freshman guard Marlain Veal and senior guard JaMichael Hawkins, but the team could not manage to come out on top in the first half, finishing with a final 3-pointer by Capps in the final second to make the score 22-28. 

In the second half, Nicholls started off with two plays by Adam Ward in the 19th minute, advancing the score to 23-32. Following this, the Lions made multiple turnovers and rebounds, but stayed behind the Colonels. In the 12th minute, freshman guard Dimi Cook made a three-pointer followed by two back-to-back plays by the Colonels shortly after. Of those two Colonel plays, the second one at 9:29 created one of the largest point-gaps in the game at 28-46. In the sixth minute, sophomore forward James Currington made a good layup, but the Colonels continued to surpass the Lions with multiple back-to-back plays until the fourth minute where two good layups were made by Capps, breaking their streak. These two plays by Capps put the score at 36-58. Although the team remained behind, in the final two minutes, the Lions made multiple successful plays including a 3-pointer by Cook and four good free throws by Nelson, Cook and Veal. The game finished at the final score of 45-64. 

In the game, the overall performance was far from the normal performance that the team usually puts on. With Nicholls now advancing to the tournament as the No. 7 seed, Head Coach men’s basketball Jay Ladner expressed his disappointment. 

“I was really disappointed,” said Ladner. “As the secured No. 5 seed, I was concerned about our motivation for the game as far as the players were concerned. An athlete should be motivated whether there’s anything on the line or not, but the reality of it is that I think our players took the attitude of ‘well, we can’t increase our seeding or lose our seeding.’ I don’t think it was a conscious effort. Subconsciously, we went through the motions. We played very poorly.” 

Looking forward to the Southland Conference Tournament, Ladner feels that the team needs to get more serious about the games. 

“We’ll find out from this point forward, the games are for real, meaning that the next loss and we’ll be finished,” said Ladner. “We have to go take care of business and hopefully we’ll bounce back. We’ve got to get refocused and understand now that all the remaining teams have an equal shot at winning the championship.” 

Up next for the Lions is their first game in the post-season against the No. 8 seed on Wed., Mar. 9 at 5 p.m. in Katy, Texas.