POSTGAME QUOTES | GAME BOOK (PDF)
NEW ORLEANS – It was a history night for the University of New Orleans men's basketball team as the Privateers scored the first four points and never trailed at any point en route to a 94-61 victory over Blue Mountain College on Wednesday to give the program its 300th all-time win in Lakefront Arena.
Junior guard
Christavious Gill led four Privateers in double figures offensively with a game-best 22 points. The victory snapped a two-game skid for UNO, which concluded non-conference play with a 4-7 record and are now 300-95 in its home facility since the building's opening prior to the 1983-84 season. Blue Mountain, meanwhile, fell to 2-10 on the year.
"It's amazing to think about the history that goes with this building," head coach
Mark Slessinger said. "Every morning when I come to work here, I still pinch myself. I'm blessed and lucky enough to be the head coach here. It's the best basketball facility in the South, in my opinion, and then you add in all the history with all the greats that were able to coach here. There have been a lot of great guys that have coached here and to be here for the 300th win is important to me in a lot of ways.
"I was proud that they played team basketball throughout the game. We didn't have any possessions where I thought there were bad shots or selfish shots. They were good in that respect. We played good, solid team defense. We were able to get our press going, force them into some turnovers and played with some speed defensively, which was important for us – especially coming off of the break."
As a team, New Orleans hit a season-best 55.8 percent from the field (29-of-52), including a .571 clip in the first half as the Privateers went into the locker room at the break on top 49-25. The Privateers out-rebounded the Toppers, 43-30, and used their size advantage inside to outscore Blue Mountain in the paint, 34-26. The UNO defense forced 25 turnovers on the strength of 18 steals and turned the Toppers' turnovers into 31 points.
Junior forward
Erik Thomas, who led the team with six rebounds, was second to Gill in scoring with 16 points, followed by junior guard
Tevin Broyles with 14 and sophomore wing
Michael Zeno with 12. Gill and junior point guard
Nate Frye shared game-high assist honors with four each while Broyles and sophomore guard
Matthew Jiles had four steals apiece. Thomas was one of six Privateers to pull down at least four rebounds as forwards
Kevin Hill and
Travin Thibodeaux snared five boards each while Gill, Jiles and Zeno all had a quartet of caroms.
Gill finished 6-of-8 from the field, including a 4-of-5 performance from beyond the 3-point arc while going a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Thomas was 5-for-5 shooting, Broyles finished 5-of-6 with a trey and Zeno came off the bench to connect on 5-of-8 shots.
"We had guys come in and have good nights offensively and those are the guys that have played well in practice and training," Slessinger said. "They've been really good so it's nice to see them get rewarded in the game. Most importantly, it was a good team win. It gives us a little bit of momentum going into Monday night when we start this 18-game league run in conference."
After jumping out to the early lead, UNO pushed its advantage to double digits at 16-6 just over seven minutes into the game and allowed Blue Mountain to get to within single digits just twice the rest of the night. The Toppers got the Privateer lead down to 10 at 32-22 with 4:02 to play in the first half only to see the home team go on a 17-1 run over the next 3:08.
New Orleans made it a 30-point contest early in the second half, and the two teams traded the next 28 points to make it a 72-42 affair at the 8:58 mark. From there, UNO went on a 19-9 run over the next 5:21 as the lead swelled to 40 at 91-51 with 3:31 left to play. Blue Mountain ended the game on a 10-3 run, but the contest had long since been decided.
"I was just excited that we played efficiently on offense," Slessinger added. "We had a lot of guys that had good nights as far as being able to score the ball at a good rate and being solid. We did a good job of guarding their actions well and taking them out of the things they wanted to do offensively."
C.J. Barnes led the Toppers with 10 points while Austen Burton, Harrison Fancher and DeAundre Smith added nine each. Smith led all players with seven rebounds, Justin McClellon added a team-best three assists and Denio Chirindza had three of the Toppers 11 steals.
The Privateers return to action on Monday, Jan. 4, when UNO travels to Beaumont, Texas, to open Southland Conference play at Lamar. From there, New Orleans will play at Sam Houston State on Saturday, Jan. 9, before returning home to face Incarnate Word on Monday, Jan. 11. Tipoff for that game is slated for 7 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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