GAME BOOK (PDF) | POSTGAME QUOTES
EVANSTON, Illinois – Pregame tunes these days rarely features music of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members The Shirelles, but it was a case of "Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This" for the University of New Orleans men's basketball team on Saturday evening at Northwestern as the Privateers dropped a 90-63 decision to the host Wildcats in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
UNO hung tough early on and trailed by just a pair at 14-12 with 14:17 to play in the first half. From there, however, the Wildcats rattled off 13-consecutive points over the next 3:58 and never looked back. The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Privateers, who fell to 2-3 on the year. Northwestern, meanwhile, won its second straight game to improve to 5-1.
"They shot the ball really, really well," head coach
Mark Slessinger said. "We came out very poor defensively in the first half, missed a lot of assignments, didn't do a lot of the things and carry over a lot of the momentum from Wednesday night's game [at Bradley]. It was really disappointing and frustrating. In the second half, we came out with a lot more energy and played better than we did in the first half. It wasn't good enough, but we got better. We'll improve and get better."
The Privateer defense allowed Northwestern to connect on 55.2 percent of its shots from the field (32-of-58), including a 12-of-26 showing from beyond the 3-point arc (.462). The Wildcats out-rebounded UNO, 40-24, turned 11 offensive rebounds into a dozen second-chance points and used its size advantage to post a 32-16 edge in points in the paint.
New Orleans hit 18-of-48 field goals on the night (.375) with a 4-of-9 showing from 3-point land (.444) to go with 23 made free throws in 33 opportunities from the stripe (.697). Those numbers were bolstered in the second half when the Privateers were 3-of-6 from 3 (.500) and 17-of-22 at the free throw line (.773)
Junior guard
Nate Frye led the UNO offense with 14 points and freshman
Cameron Reed was next with 13 off the bench. Three of Reed's four buckets came from downtown. Junior forward
Erik Thomas, who had eight points, led the Privateers with four rebounds, the trio of Frye,
Christavious Gill and
Tevin Broyles shared team-high assist honors with three apiece, and both Fry and Gill had a team-best two steals. Broyles, Gill and sophomore forward
Travin Thibodeaux each had a block for the UNO defense.
After falling behind 27-12 with 10:02 to play in the first half, UNO got to within 13 on four occasions only to see Northwestern respond each time. The last time the Privateers cut the gap to a baker's dozen at 34-21, the Wildcats used 14-4 run over the final six-plus minutes of the half to go into the locker room on top by 23.
Northwestern only scored four more points than New Orleans in the second half, but led by as many as 33 at 76-43 with 6:13 to play in regulation. The Privateers answered with a 16-6 run over the next 4:18 to make it 82-59, but the Wildcats scored eight of the game's last 12 points to account for the final score.
"They had a great game plan," Slessinger added. "They had some guys step up that had not performed or shot the ball the way they did tonight statistically. They shot their minds out tonight and that's tough to swallow. We've got to make better adjustments and we've got to do a better job in these situations. We got a lot more aggressive in the second half and were able to get to the free throw line. That was big for us because we weren't producing points in other places at times."
Scottie Lindsey led four Northwestern players in double figures with 26 points after hitting 9-of-12 shots, including a 6-of-7 showing from beyond the arc, to go with a pair of free throws in as many attempts. Tre Demps was next for the Wildcats with 16 points, followed by Bryant McIntosh with 13 and Gavin Skelly with 10. Skelly and Alex Olah shared game-high rebounding honors with eight each while McIntosh handed out a game-best seven assists. Olah led all players with six blocked shots and Demps had three of Northwestern's six steals.
The Privateers return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 2, when they travel across the Crescent City to take on Tulane at 7 p.m. in Devlin Fieldhouse. From there, UNO will close out its four-game road swing on Dec. 5 at Ball State before returning to Lakefront Arena Saturday, Dec. 12, for a 6:15 p.m. showdown against Williams Baptist.
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).
