BOX SCORE (PDF) | POSTGAME QUOTES
PEORIA, Illinois – It wasn't always pretty, but for the University of New Orleans' basketball team, it sure was sweet as the Privateers picked up their first road win of the 2015-16 season with a 64-51 victory over the Bradley Braves on Wednesday evening in Carver Arena.
After falling behind 4-0 to start the game, UNO rattled off nine-unanswered points to take a five-point lead it would not relinquish. In a tightly-called game that featured a combined 50 personal fouls and 55 free throw opportunities, the Privateers hit their freebies when it mattered most to win their second straight game and even their overall record at 2-2. Bradley, meanwhile, dropped its fifth consecutive contest to fall to 1-5.
"We played great defensively," UNO head coach
Mark Slessinger said. "
Bil Duany and
Jody Bailey are the two assistants that did an unbelievable job with the scouting report and preparing the guys for this kind of game. I'm very blessed to have them. As a head coach, you're only as good as your student-athletes and your coaches. They all did a great job tonight of preparing themselves.
"It was an ugly game offensively, but defensively, it was really pretty and we'll take it. It was such a victory for us in a lot of ways. I think back to Ron Maestri. He's a Bradley alum and the godfather of UNO athletics. This was a huge win for us to come up and represent him well as the original architect of UNO athletics."
The guard tandem of juniors
Nate Frye and
Christavious Gill scored 13 points each, followed by fellow junior guard
Tevin Broyles with eight and the frontcourt duo of junior
Erik Thomas and senior
Kevin Hill with seven apiece. Three of Gill's five field goals came from beyond the 3-point arc and the bulk of Frye's offensive output came from the free throw line where he was a perfect 8-for-8.
Thomas paced the Privateers with eight rebounds and Gill tallied four of the team's seven steals. Sophomore forward
Travin Thibodeaux blocked three shots while pulling down five rebounds, and Frye tallied four assists to go with six rebounds and a theft.
As a team, the Privateers hit just 37.5 percent of its shots from the field (21-of-56), including a 7-of-26 performance in the second half (.269), but the game was won on defense and at the free throw line. UNO held Bradley to 17-of-54 shooting (.315) and turned 23 Braves fouls into 27 free throw opportunities. After going just 2-for-9 from the stripe in the first half, New Orleans sank 13-of-18 after intermission with Frye swishing six over the final 3:32 to quiet any talks of a Bradley comeback.
"We had a lot of clutch free throws," Slessinger said. "When it counted, we were making them. I'd like to make every single one of them. We work on that every day, and sometimes they're not going to fall. But when they counted, we made them. When we needed to stretch the game out, we did. And when we needed to get stops, we did. Any time you can go on the road against a Missouri Valley team and get a win, you'd better take it and run."
After taking a 9-4 lead 4:23 into the contest, UNO's first-half advantage swelled to as many as nine at 18-9 with 9:33 to go before the break and the Braves used a 9-2 rally over the next 2:51 to make it a two-point affair. The two teams traded the next four buckets before New Orleans scored eight of the final 10 points of the first half to go into the locker room on top, 33-25.
Just like the first half, Bradley opened the final stanza with a 4-0 run to make it 33-29 but got no closer the rest of the night as a combined four free throws by Frye, Gill and Hill pushed the lead back to eight and freshman guard
Cameron Reed buried a 3-pointer to give UNO and 11-point edge at 40-29 with 14:06 to play. Bradley got to within six when a pair of Callum Barker free throws made it 46-40 at the 7:31 mark only to see the Privateers answer with another Reed trey and a Hill jumper to go up by 11 and New Orleans was able to keep the Braves at arms' reach the rest of the way.
Donté Thomas posted a double-double to lead Bradley with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Ka'Darryl Bell was next for the Braves offensively with 10 points and shared the team lead in assists with Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye at two apiece. Latier-Ogunleye headlined the Bradley defense with two steals and a pair of blocked shots.
UNO continues its four-game road swing on Saturday when the Privateers play at Northwestern with tipoff slated for 7 p.m. in Evanston, Illinois. From there, UNO will play at Tulane on Wednesday, Dec. 2, and at Ball State on Saturday, Dec. 5. New Orleans' next home game will be Saturday, Dec. 12, when the Privateers play host to Williams Baptist at 6:15 p.m. in Lakefront Arena.
Tickets to that game and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking
HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).
