Box Score
Coach Sless Postgame Audio
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The New Orleans Privateers men's basketball team weathered the waves of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders, but never relinquished their first half lead to win 70-62 in the American Bank Center on Saturday night.
The Privateers (7-9, 4-4) even their Southland record with the win and hand the Islanders (9-12, 6-2) their second loss in the league with both coming on their home floor. For New Orleans, it is the first back-to-back wins on the road over Division I opponents since Feb.14 and 18, 2008 defeating then Sun Belt Conference foes Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock.
"I know it sounds redundant, but I am very proud of these guys. These young men want to represent the university well and make the University of New Orleans and the city of New Orleans proud. Getting back-to-back wins on the road in league play is an accomplishment, but we are not going to hang our hat on it. We know there is work still to be done," said Head Coach
Mark Slessinger.
New Orleans received another stellar performance from freshman Chrsitavious Gill, this time off the bench with a career-high 19 points which tops his previous personal best of 18 established on Thursday night in a win against Houston Baptist. Also with a major impact in the game was senior
Cory Dixon with 12 points and 16 rebounds for his fourth double-double in conference play.
The only other double-digit scorer for the Privateers was senior
Tradarrius McPhearson with 14 points. Although not crossing the 10-point plateau, sophomore
Kevin Hill filled the stat sheet with seven points, five rebounds and seven blocks.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi had three players with 10 or more, led by all-Southland player John Jordan with 20.
"Make no mistake, this is a very good basketball team and this is a quality win for us," said Slessinger about the Islanders. "We will celebrate this tonight as a team and we will go to work in preparing for Southeastern tomorrow."
New Orleans built its lead to as many 14 points in the second half, but the Islanders stormed back over the final three minutes to come within five points – 65-60 – with 37 seconds left, but that is as close as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi would come at staging a comeback. Freshman
Nate Frye would score the game's final points, sinking both his free throws with nine ticks left on the clock to all but ice the game.
In the first half, there were three lead changes and two ties with New Orleans taking a 14-12 lead on a pair of free throws by McPhearson at the 11:39 mark, and the Privateers maintained the advantage the rest of the contest. New Orleans built its lead to as many as eight points in the first half on two free throws by Dixon in the final two minutes before going into the locker room at halftime with a 26-22 lead.
The Privateers shot 45.5 percent from the floor for the game, while limiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to a 34.5 percent mark that included being blanked (0-for-8) from behind the arc.
New Orleans will continue its Southland Conference tour with its next match coming in Louisiana at Southeastern on Thursday, January 30. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. at the University Center.
