Men's Basketball To Play at Louisiana-Lafayette On Monday

UNO NOTES | UL-LAFAYETTE NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans men's basketball team will look to build on its solid play of late and continue fine tuning the little things that can be the difference between winning and losing on Monday, Dec. 21, when the Privateers travel to Cajun Country to take on a familiar opponent in Louisiana-Lafayette.
 
Tipoff in the Cajun Dome is set for 7 p.m. and fans can catch all of the action live online at www.UNOPrivateers via the UNO Showcase. The game against the Ragin' Cajuns is one of two non-conference games remaining on the schedule as the Privateers will play host to Blue Mountain College on Dec. 29 before opening Southland Conference action on Jan. 4 at Lamar.
 
"We have to go back and play one of our biggest rivals in program history on Monday night," UNO head coach Mark Slessinger said. "Whether you call them Louisiana-Lafayette or Southwestern Louisiana, it's a big game. It's a big game for everybody who has ever played in our program and It's a big game for everybody who every attended our University.
 
"This is a chance for us to continue to get better, and it comes against a tough opponent as UL-Lafayette has dominated the Sun Belt Conference the last few years. We will be to once again transfer the things we've been working on and improving on in practice into a game setting. We've done a good job of that in recent weeks, and I look forward to continuing that trend on Monday night."
 
The Privateers head to Lafayette 3-6 on the year and looking bounce back from a 103-95 overtime loss to UMass on Wednesday night in Amherst, Massachusetts. UNO is 1-6 in road contests so far this season with the lone victory coming in a 64-51 decision at Bradley on Nov. 25.
 
As a team, New Orleans is averaging 72.1 points, 38.0 rebounds, 14.0 assists, 8.4 steals and 2.3 blocks per game. Junior guard Christavious Gill leads a balanced Privateer offense with 14.1 points per game followed by junior guard Nate Frye at 10.3, junior forward Erik Thomas at 9.6 and sophomore wing Michael Zeno at 8.3.
 
Thomas paces the team with 7.1 rebounds per game and sophomore Travin Thibodeaux headlines the defense with 0.9 blocked shots per outing. Frye leads the Privateers with 3.7 assists per game and Gill has a team-best 2.0 steals-per-contest average.
 
New Orleans is connecting at a .406 clip from the field, hitting 220-of-542 shots from the floor and 51-of-137 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.372), while allowing opponents to shoot .447 overall (226-of-506) and .306 from 3-point land (59-of-193). Privateer foes are averaging 74.6 points, 37.7 rebounds, 14.3 assists, 8.4 steals and 5.1 blocks so far in 2015-16.
 
Louisiana-Lafayette, meanwhile, enters Monday's showdown 3-6 on the season and looking to snap a three-game skid after dropping consecutive road contests at Louisiana Tech (91-79 on Dec. 12), at UCLA (89-80 on Dec. 15) and at Pepperdine (79-59 on Dec. 18). All three of the Ragin' Cajuns wins have come at home.
 
As a team, the Cajuns are averaging 85.4 points, 42.3 rebounds, 13.7 assists, 8.0 steals and 3.4 blocks per game. Shawn Long leads three UL-Lafayette players averaging double figures offensively with 18.8 points per game while Jay Wright and Kasey Shepherd followed with identical averages of 11.2. Long also paces the team with 12.3 rebounds per game and 1.7 blocks per outing. Wright headlines the squad with 3.6 assists per game and Shepherd sports a team-leading 1.9 steal-per-contest average.
 
Louisiana-Lafayette is hitting 45.6 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 275-of-603 field goal attempts, including a 63-of-218 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.289). The Ragin' Cajun defense has allowed opponents to post a 45.4 shooting percentage (248-of-546) and a 40.2 clip from 3-point land (70-of-174). UL-Lafayette opponents are averaging 81.3 points, 35.9 rebounds, 12.9 assists, 5.6 steals and 3.9 blocks per game.
 
Monday's game between New Orleans and Louisiana-Lafayette marks 70th time the two teams will meet on the hardwood and the Ragin' Cajuns hold a 37-32  lead in the all-time series. UNO is 13-20 when playing UL-Lafayette in Cajun Country, and have now dropped its last 13 games when playing in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Privateers' last road win over UL-Lafayette came back on Jan. 15, 1998, when UNO came away with an 88-66 victory.
 
The series between the two schools dates back to March 12, 1971, when New Orleans fell 113-107 in the NCAA Division II South Regional in Lafayette. Since then, UNO and UL-Lafayette have spent time as fellow members of both the American South Conference (1987-91) and Sun Belt Conference (1991-2010).
 
The 1971 DII Regional contest marked a low ebb for the Privateers to start the series as UNO won just four of the first 13 head-to-head meetings. From 1987-97, however, UNO was 22-6 against the Cajuns but the Privateers are just 6-22 against Louisiana-Lafayette since then. New Orleans' last win against UL-Lafayette came on Jan. 8, 2009, when the Privateers earned a 61-58 victory in Lakefront Arena. The Cajuns have won the last two games, 76-60 on Feb. 22, 2009 and 70-53 on Jan. 21, 2010, in the Cajun Dome.
 
Following the game at the Cajun Dome, UNO will close out the non-conference portion of the 2015-16 campaign on Dec. 29 against Blue Mountain College in Lakefront Arena. Tipoff for that contest is slated for 5:30 p.m. Tickets to that contest and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).

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