Box Score
NEW ORLEANS, La.- The New Orleans Privateers men's basketball team (4-7, 1-2) used a balanced scoring effort to hold off the Abilene Christian Wildcats (6-9, 0-1) 87-81 at Lakefront Arena on Thursday night.
UNO was ahead 83-78 with under a minute left, but the Wildcats got a key turnover on a steal by Parker Wentz near half court. LaDarrien Williams hit a step back triple to cut the lead to two with 25.6 seconds left. From there, the Privateers went four-of-six from the free throw line to help ice the game.
"I'm proud of our guys and I thought our guys played as a team. I thought where we weren't great a week ago, we fixed that this week through a lot of hard work and sacrifice," said Privateers Head Coach,
Mark Slessinger.
The Privateers and Wildcats played a fast-paced first half. UNO opened the game by scoring the first eight points. A pair of free throws by
Tradarrius McPhearson pushed the Privateer lead to nine, their largest of the night. The Wildcats went on an 8-2 spurt immediately after to cut the Privateer lead to three.
From then, both teams played nearly even in the last 10:30. UNO went to the break with a 42-38 edge, but they never trailed in the opening half of play. Neither team led by more than the final margin of six points. Abilene Christian took their first lead of the game on a three-pointer by LaDarrien Williams at the 13:41 mark of the second half to push the Wildcats in front 53-52. ACU grew the lead to as large as five on two different occasions, with the last coming when a James Pegues layup put the Wildcats up 66-61.
UNO wrestled the lead back when McPhearson drained one of two free throws to put the Privateers up 69-68 with 6:17 left. McPhearson poured in a season-high 19 points. The Privateers never trailed from that point, but Parker Wentz tied it at 76-76 with 3:18 left.
Matt Derenbecker gave UNO the lead back for good on a drive and layup on the next possession.
"Guards are the strength of this league and if you can lock down over the course at the end of it, you have a chance and we made free throws when it counted, but we played smart basketball in those last three minutes. We didn't force things, we let it come to us. We worked the clock and shortened the game," said Slessinger about the deciding run.
Christavious Gill caught fire in the second half while setting a new career-high with 17 points. He drained four-of-six triples, and made three in the second half. Gill came into the night with only six three-pointers on the season.
Cory Dixon continued his strong start to conference play by posting a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Kevin Hill added 14 points off the bench. The Privateers shot 47.1 percent as a team and out-rebounded the Wildcats 42-33.
Abilene Christian was led by Harrison Hawkins, who scored 19 points. Wentz added 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Williams put in 15 points, grabbed a team-high nine boards, and also dished out five assists.
UNO looks to continue their winning ways in Southland play on Saturday when take on Incarnate Word on Saturday. Tip is scheduled for 1 p.m.
