Box Score UNO-SUNO Box Score
NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans put together a strong shooting performance in posting an 81-72 victory over Southern-New Orleans at Lakefront Arena on Thursday night.
UNO (13-9) shot 50.8 percent from the game and made 10 of their 22 three-point attempts in the victory.
Max Banchy connected on three of the team's long distance tries to lead a group of six players that accounted for at least one three-pointer in the contest for the Privateers.
Lovell Cook was the top scorer for UNO with 13 points in snapping SUNO's (9-8) five-game winning streak.
Brandon Knight contributed 10 points, but more importantly dished out seven assists without committing a turnover. Knight's effort helped a team that compiled 21 assists to just eight turnovers.
As has become a common theme this season, the bench played a large role once more for head coach
Mark Slessinger's squad. The UNO reserves led by
Generra Varmall and
Darrell Williams outscored the Knights 35-16.
Varmall poured in 11 points with Williams adding 10.
“Today was unbelievable and it really showed our growth and development of our team,” said Slessinger. “The bench came in and really played at a high level tonight.”
“We had a solid run of 10 guys that played extremely hard and extremely unselfish. Our guys on the bench were into it and really helped coach the guys on the floor.”
Despite the results on the whole, UNO did get off to a slow start offensively.
After Knight scored the first points of the game on a lay-up only 14 seconds in, the Privateers missed its next seven attempts from the field as the Knights jumped out to a 13-4 lead.
Varmall provided the spark the Privateers needed off the bench to turn the game around, accounting for seven of the Privateers' first 19 points including a lay-up with 10:14 to go before the half that put the squad up briefly at 16-15.
A series of ties preceded a Banchy three-pointer with 5:04 remaining in the opening half. The Banchy three-pointer put UNO in the driver's seat with a 33-30 edge, an advantage they would maintain as they entered the break ahead 43-35.
As the second half began, another Banchy three-pointer provided a spark.
With SUNO trailing by just five points, the guard drained a long-range shot to kick off a 7-0 run that pushed the Privateer lead to a game-high 14 points with 11:24 to go.
The Knights would try valiantly to trim in the lead by Kevin Dukes' 13 second half points, but could not find a way to get closer than eight down the stretch.
Dukes finished with a game-high 24 points while Merlin Walker scored 14. The Privateers held SUNO's leading scorer Clyde Moore to a 3 of 9 effort from the field.
The evening's crowd of 784 was the largest to date this season and featured a very vocal student body.
“The crowd tonight was phenomenal especially the students,” said Slessinger. “It was so great to see our student groups out supporting us again tonight.”
“Our orientation leaders and other campus student leaders really showed out, as did our campus administration and staff. This crowd tonight really brought back a little bit of the magic that this beautiful building holds.”
UNO will finish the campaign with 8 out of 10 games on the road.
“These next 10 games are a great challenge for our team to really see how far we have come and how good of team we can be,” said Slessinger. “It is a great challenge for us to finish this year for a wonderful group of student-athletes who have bought into rebuilding our proud tradition.”
The Privateers will play three in a row on the road starting on Tuesday night at West Florida. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip in the UWF Field House.
