NATCHITOCHES – At times this season, the Northwestern State men's basketball team has lived on a razor's edge.
 
In the Demons' home finale against Nicholls on Monday night, Northwestern State could not maintain its balance as the visiting Colonels used a late first-half flurry to take a lead into halftime en route to a 68-62 Southland Conference victory at Prather Coliseum.
 
"I've been telling the guys and our staff all year, our margin for error is so slim, because every time we make a mistake other teams 100 percent of the time capitalize on it," first-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. "That's the belly of the beast we've been dealing with. We can still improve. We have some season to go, but it's pretty frustrating to deal with. It's basketball. You have to man up and get better."
 
Northwestern State (9-21, 7-10) never led by more than three points but held a two-point advantage with 39 seconds remaining in the first half after senior Justin Wilson sank a pair of free throws.
 
That's when the Colonels (17-13, 12-5) finished the half with a 5-0 run that gave them the lead for good.
 
It started with a Byron Ireland 3-pointer with 11 seconds to go before Quinn Strander stole a pass near the baseline and laid it in to give Nicholls a three-point lead at the midway point.
 
The Colonels continued to expand their lead as the Demons again started a half slowly offensively.
 
After beginning the first half 1-for-12 from the field, Northwestern State opened the second half 3 for 12 as Nicholls built its largest lead of the game – a 52-42 edge on a Rob Brown III 3-pointer with 12:54 to play.
 
"We didn't shoot the ball well offensively," said Cabrera, whose team shot 33.9 percent for the game. "A lot of that is a credit to their defense, but we can't make free throws. That's been an Achilles heel for us. I make these guys shoot 100 free throws after every practice, and every game, we're missing eight or missing nine. That's frustrating, especially when you go to the line 28 times."
 
The Demons were 19-for-28 from the line Monday night, drawing six more free throw attempts than Nicholls but converting only two more.
 
Once the Colonels built their 10-point lead, the Demons had a 10-3 surge in them to cut the lead to three with 6:46 to play. Helping spark the rally were four points from freshman center J.C. Riley Jr., who tied his career high with eight points while producing a plus-6 in his 10:40 of playing time.
 
"J.C.'s issue is not talent," Cabrera said. "He just has to continue to learn how to play with a high motor at this level, which he did tonight. He answered the bell. Going into the preparation, I didn't think this was a good matchup for him because they started (Jamal) West (Jr.) at the five. When they went big, we had to play big. When we had Justo (Wilson) and J.C. in there together, we did some positive things."
 
Brown III paced Nicholls with a game-high 21 points, sinking 5 of 7 3-pointers, while Diante Smith and Ireland combined for 30 points.
 
Braelon Bush tallied 15 points, reaching double figures for the fourth straight game, to lead Northwestern State, which also got 11 points from Cliff Davis and 10 from Wilson, who played his final game in Prather Coliseum.
 
The Demons conclude their regular season with a visit to Texas A&M-Commerce on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.