Box Score
BATON ROUGE, La. – The New Orleans Privateers men's basketball team trailed by only four – 32-28 – at halftime, but could not hold the sharp shooting LSU Tigers, falling 81-54 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Tuesday night.
"I was very proud tonight to be the coach of these young men," said New Orleans Basketball Head Coach
Mark Slessinger. "We proved that we can play with anyone tonight, but we have some mistakes to clean up."
New Orleans was stellar from behind the arc, shooting 50 percent (5-of-10) in the first half and blanked LSU (0-of-7) from 3-point range; however, the tides changed in the second half with LSU making due on 5-of-16 from downtown, while UNO cooled off to only convert 2-of-9.
The Privateers (1-1) were led by senior
Cory Dixon with a career-high tying 18 points to go along with 8 rebounds, while senior
Isaac Mack and junior
Matt Derenbecker each had 8 points. Derenbecker played in his first game as a Privateer, which ironically came against LSU where he started his collegiate career.
The Tigers (2-1) had three players in double figures with Andre Stringer leading the way with 19 points – 18 of which came in the second half.
In the first half, the Privateers trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half, but New Orleans kept its poise and steadily chipped away at the deficit. After two three-balls by Derenbecker and a and-one play in the lane by Dixon, the Privateers trailed by only two points with 1:01 left on the clock. It was the Privateers first and only trip to the free throw line in the first half, while the Tigers were 12-of-18 at the charity stripe.
LSU scored the final two points of the half from the free throw line to go into the locker room at halftime with the four-point, 32-28 advantage.
"Like I told the guys in the locker room, we were right there with a top 30 team in the nation for 24 minutes," said Slessinger. "We executed the way we practiced, but we could not maintain the momentum. All fixable mistakes though and I am proud to coach this team."
The Tigers opened the second half on a tear, going on a 12-3 run to extend its lead to 13 – 44-31 – in the early part of the second half. New Orleans cut the lead to single digits twice thereafter before LSU pulled away in the latter minutes of the second half.
New Orleans will be back in action on Saturday for another Cox Sports Television featured game when the Privateers host nationally renowned Boise State in the Lakefront Arena. Tip-off is at 11 a.m. with the women's game versus Jacksonville State to follow at 1 p.m.
