Box Score
TULSA, Okla. – The New Orleans Privateers men's basketball team (8-10, 5-5 Southland) could not overcome a sluggish start as they lost 79-59 to the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (11-12, 5-5) on Thursday night at the Mabee Center.
Oral Roberts opened the game with a 9-2 run as the Privateers struggled to find their footing from the field. New Orleans was held to just six total points in the first 11 minutes of the opening half as they missed 10 of their opening 14 shots and committed 10 turnovers in that span.
"We didn't play well in many aspects of the game. It's very frustrating and disappointing.We had a chance to push through and do something we hadn't done in a long time, and we didn't complete the task. We ran into a good team who played well, but it had more to do with what we didn't do," said Head Coach
Mark Slessinger.
The Privateers were trailing 18-9 when
Christavious Gill made his first impact on the scoreboard. He earned and converted two free throws then followed up with a three-pointer in transition to cut the Privateers deficit to four.
From that point, the Golden Eagles re-extended by going on a 16-3 run to lead by as many as 17 points. Oral Roberts carried a 34-20 lead into the half as the Privateers committed 14 turnovers in the opening half and shot just 30.4 percent (7-for-23). The 20 points scored by New Orleans represented the lowest first-half offensive output to date this season.
To start the second half, Oral Roberts went on a 13-3 run that pushed their lead to 47-23. From there, New Orleans could not get the deficit any closer than 16 on two different occasions for the remainder of the night.
"We didn't execute defensively in core fundamentals. Things we normally do well, we didn't do well tonight. We had too many missed assignments and missed opportunities," said Slessinger
The Privateers were paced by Gill's 12 points in the loss.
James Harrison added 10 points for his second double-digit scoring effort of the season.
Cory Dixon led the way on the boards with eight, but it wasn't enough as the Privateers were out-rebounded 41-29. New Orleans also surrendered 32 points in the paint.
Oral Roberts got 27 points from the Southland's leading scorer, Shawn Glover. Korey Billbury added 21 points along with 14 boards and seven assists for a Golden Eagles squad that shot an even 50 percent on the night. Bobby Word and Brandon Conley also achieved double figures in points with 11 and 10 respectively.
The Privateers will head to Conway, Ark. to take on the Central Arkansas Bears on Saturday. Tip is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
