Frontcourt Effort Not Enough As Men's Hoops Falls At A&M-Corpus Christi, 97-76

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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – For the bulk of the 2015-16 season, the University of New Orleans men's basketball team made its biggest impact with defense. On Saturday evening in the American Bank Center, the effort on that end of the floor let the team down as the Privateers dropped a 97-76 contest to Southland Conference foe Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Trailing 43-36 at halftime, UNO (5-12, 1-5) used a 9-4 run over the first three-plus minutes of the second half to make it a two-point contest. The Privateers were down 49-47 two possessions later, but the Islanders (15-3, 5-0) used a 14-4 run to go up by a dozen and the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi advantage dipped into single digits just once the rest of the way.
 
"We were bad defensively," UNO head coach Mark Slessinger said. "We've hung our hats on being great defensively all year. We've guarded and done things on a high level on that end of the court for the majority of the season and we did not do that tonight at any level tonight. We were well prepared through our scouting. We finally turned the corner offensively. We shot the ball well from 3. We shot the ball well from the foul line. We were able to get the ball where we wanted to. We just did not complete the plays that we needed to defensively.
 
"We talked a lot about this with the team – that the offense was coming. We knew it was coming and we finally felt like we've done a couple of things this week in practice with a couple of adjustments to make those changes and turn the corner. Defensively, this was as big of a disappointment as we've had all year."
 
As a team, the Privateers shot 41.0 percent from the field (25-of-61), including a .517 clip in the second half after connecting on 15-of-29 shots after the break. The Islanders, meanwhile, shot 58.1 percent for the contest (18-of-31), including a 13-of-23 effort from beyond the 3-point arc (.565). UNO held a slight 37-36 advantage on the boards, turned 16 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points, and outscored Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 36-34 in the paint. The Islanders' hot shooting, especially from 3-point land, proved to be the difference in the ballgame.
 
Junior forward Erik Thomas posted his second double-double of the year with a team-best 16 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Sophomore forward Travin Thibodeaux followed suit with a season-high 14 points while junior guard Nate Frye rounded out the Privateers in double figures offensively with 13. Thibodeaux hit 6-of-7 field goals, Frye was 5-of-7 from the floor and Thomas finished the game 7-of-15.Thomas also paced the Privateers with three points and a trio of steals to go with a pair of blocked shots.
 
"We did a good job of making some adjustments for both of those guys," Slessinger said of Thibodeaux and Thomas. "We worked the ball inside-out when we needed to. We also had some great looks from 3 that just didn't go. Coleman [Edwards] had a couple of really good looks. Our kick-outs just didn't go. Christavious [Gill] had one or two. What we wanted to get offensively, we felt like we got for the most part. Defensively, it was just a complete disappointment."
 
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi opened the game red hot, scoring the first six points and sinking three of its first four shots to take a 9-2 lead just over two minutes into the contest. The Privateers trailed 19-9 with 15:36 to play in the opening stanza before going on a 25-3 run over the next 5:44 to take a 26-22 lead. The Islanders answered with an 18-4 spurt to go back up by 10 at 40-30 with 1:59 to play before the break and UNO scored six of the final nine points of the half to go into the locker room trailing by seven.
 
Thomas sparked New Orleans' early second-half surge with a tip-in bucket and the Islanders' sandwiched baskets by Rashawn Thomas and Hameed Ali around a Thibodeaux luyup to keep it a seven-point game at 47-40. From there, Frye nailed a layup, Thomas added one of his own while being fouled and sank the and-one free throw to make it a two-point contest.
 
The two teams traded the next four points before Texas A&M-Corpus Christi went on its game-changing run. Up by 10, the Islanders quieted any talks of a Privateers comeback with three 3-pointers in as many possessions to take control of the contest. A Thibodeaux layup with 6:15 to play cut the UNO deficit to 14 at 76-64, but that is as close as the Privateers would get the rest of the way.
 
"This is not what we wanted," Slessinger added. "This is not where we feel this team should be. We should have turned two or three of those games around in there. We should be 3-3 at this point and we're very disappointed in where we're at. Nobody feels sorry for us. We've got to get our butt back in there, get working and get this thing turned around. We've got 12 more [games] to go and we've got to get ready to make a march into the [Southland] tournament and achieve or goal of making the NCAA Tournament. There's no time to feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to get back and get working."
 
Thomas led Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with a game-high 24 points while Ali had 20, Eham Amin scored 18 and Bryce Douvier added 11.Thomas fell two rebounds shy of a double-double while adding three assists, three steals and two blocked shots. Ali led all players with seven assists and Amin added six steals.
 
The Privateers will return to action on Monday, Jan. 25, when they open a three-game homestand against Central Arkansas at 7 p.m. in Lakefront Arena. From there, UNO will play host to McNeese State on Saturday, Jan. 30, before squaring off against Nicholls on Monday, Feb. 1. Tickets to those contests and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).