Late Cold Spell Haunts Men's Basketball In 79-69 Loss At UL-Lafayette

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LAFAYETTE, Louisiana – Every team goes through cold spells during the course of an average college basketball game. The Privateers picked an inopportune time to go into theirs as the University of New Orleans was held without a field goal over the final 6:46 and were scoreless over the final three-plus minutes in a 79-69 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette on Monday evening in the Cajundome.
 
UNO held a 67-64 lead with 5:44 to play and the game was deadlocked at 68-all 1:16 later. From there, however, the Privateers managed just one free throw the rest of the way while the Cajuns went 2-for-2 from the field with a 3-pointer and connected on 5-of-10 free throws to come out on top. In defeat, the Privateers fall to 3-7 on the year. Louisiana-Lafayette, meanwhile, snapped a three-game skid to improve to 4-6.
 
"We played very well in stretches offensively," head coach Mark Slessinger said. "We had a couple of cold stretches where we just had some shots go in and out. We had some attacks that just wouldn't fall and it was unfortunate that we weren't able to finish. For the most part, we were getting what we wanted out of it. We just weren't making enough of them to keep things going, especially late in the second half. There were times where we could have built on some leads and added to it, but we left some points on the table."
 
Junior guard Christavious Gill led three Privateers in double figures offensively with 17 points while tying for game-high honors with three steals. Junior point guard Nate Frye was next for UNO with 16 points and junior forward Erik Thomas followed with 15. Thomas led UNO with six rebounds, Frye headlined the squad with seven assists and senior forward Kevin Hill paced the defense with a pair of blocked shots.
 
As a team, the Privateers shot 38.3 percent from the field (23-of-60) and were solid from the free throw line with a 19-of-26 showing (.731). The Ragin' Cajuns connected at a .400 clip (26-of-65) and were just 23-of-40 from the charity stripe (.575). The difference in the game was converting late and rebounding as UL-Lafayette held a 50-39 advantage on the glass and turned 23 offensive boards into 22 second-chance points.
 
A big reason for that was the second-half performance of Ragin' Cajun forward Shawn Long, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds – all of which came after the break. Three of his rebounds came on the offensive end.
 
"He had some good opportunities," Slessinger said of Long. "A lot of those were on offensive rebounds. I thought we did a good job defensively of limiting his touches, which is what we wanted to do. He was able to get three offensive putbacks and that was the beef of it. Overall, the No. 1 thing that got away from us was we just didn't keep them off the offensive glass enough and they got too many second-chance points and second-chance opportunities. We knew that was probably the biggest key for us tonight to come out of the Cajundome with a win."
 
The two teams traded the first six points of the game before UNO went on a 7-2 run to take a 10-5 lead. The five-point lead would be the Privateers' largest of the opening stanza and New Orleans held a 29-24 advantage with 3:48 to play in the period. From there, however, Louisiana-Lafayette rattled off eight unanswered points over two minutes to go ahead by three. UNO ended the half on a 4-2 run to go into the locker room down by a pair.
 
The two teams continued the slugfest early in the second half as neither team led by more than three for the bulk of the period and the game was tied on eight occasions after intermission. During UL-Lafayette's late-game surge, UNO was unable to connect on any of its final six field goals and were just 2-of-6 from the free throw line over the final six-plus minutes.

"The part that we have to get better at is we have to get much better at closing these teams out, building on leads, hold on to them and executing. There were opportunities we had and we just didn't get it done. That's the part that's frustrating. We have to continue to get better, continue to grow and get back to working. This is about the long process. This is about the big picture, getting back, putting in the time and working to get better to make the strides we need to make and fix the things we need to fix."
 
Johnathan Stove and Bryce Washington joined Long in the double-digit scoring club for the Cajuns and shared the team lead in scoring with 16 apiece. Washington completed a double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds and paced the home team with three assists. Kasey Shepherd headlined the UL-Lafayette defense with three steals and the quartet of Long, Scott Plaisance, Hayward Register and Tyrone Wooten each had a blocked shot.
 
The Privateers return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 29, when they close out the non-conference portion of the 2015-16 schedule against Blue Mountain College at 5:30 p.m. in Lakefront Arena. 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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