HAMMOND, La. (WGNO) — In pressure situations, Southeastern head basketball coach David Kiefer wants the ball in his best players’ hands.
Lately, that has been Nick Caldwell.
The senior forward out of Dutchtown High School has delivered for Southeastern throughout the course of the season. A streak that recently includes a game-winning three-pointer in the Lions’ 81-78 victory over Houston Christian on Saturday, February 17th.
“I work on those shots every day. So just really just my confidence and, you know, I mean, it’s just been rising ever since. I don’t get those shots without Roscoe [Eastmond] being the point guard that he is, you know, just everybody making plays for each other. That’s what we’re big on,” says Southeastern senior Nick Caldwell.
The Southeastern men’s basketball team has won six of their last seven games, with Caldwell averaging 22 points on 61 percent shooting and 8 rebounds per contest.
He recorded a 30-point, 12-rebound double-double in Monday’s 77-72 overtime loss to Lamar.
“I think it’s just letting the offense come to him, playing team basketball. You know, he’s not hunting and taking bad shots. That’s why you see his percentage go so high. We took a couple versus Lamar, that I would like to have back, but he’s really just taking good basketball shots. He’s hunting assists when they’re there and rebounding the basketball and just trying his best to be a good teammate. So when you do those things, good things happen,” says Southeastern head basketball coach David Kiefer.
Monday, Nick Caldwell was named Southland Conference Player of the Week for the second week in a row.
Big picture, he’s one piece of a veteran Southeastern rotation that is playing its best basketball of the year at an opportune time.
“You know, he’s got the hot hand right now. One thing I think about our team is we don’t really feel like we have a best player. We’ve had a lot of games where guys have been our best player. You know, Roger McFarlane was rolling, Alec Woodard, Brody Robury, Nick Caldwell, Roscoe [Eastmond] got player of the week. I think that’s the best part about our team is we’re we’re very unselfish and we understand that great things can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit,” says Kiefer.
Southeastern is back in action Saturday afternoon against the UNO Privateers at the Pride Roofing University Center.
The double-header starts at 1 p.m. with the Southeastern and UNO women.
The men are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.
Admission is free.
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