Nicholls St. tops Northwestern St. 88-76 in Southland semi

KATY, Texas (AP) — Kevin Johnson scored a season-high 23 points as Nicholls State defeated Northwestern State 88-76 in the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament on Friday.

The win puts top-seeded Nicholls in the Southland championship game for the first time since 1998, taking on either second seed Abilene Christian or No. 6 seed Lamar.

Ryghe Lyons added 18 points for Nicholls State (18-6). Najee Garvin added 14 points and seven rebounds. Andre Jones had 12 points and six rebounds. Andre Jones scored 12 points.

Ty Gordon was held to only six points despite leading the Colonels in scoring coming into the matchup with 15 points per game. He shot 14% from 3-point range, making 1 of 7.

Jovan Zelenbaba scored a career-high 20 points for the fourth-seeded Demons (11-18). LaTerrance Reed added 11 points. Trenton Massner had 10 points.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com