UNO NOTES | LAMAR NOTES | LISTEN LIVE
NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans men's basketball team will open the Southland Conference portion of the 2015-16 schedule on Monday, Jan. 4, when the Privateers travel to Beaumont, Texas, to square off against Lamar at 7 p.m. (CST) in the Montagne Center.
The Privateers enter the contest with a 4-7 overall record, including a 94-61 win over Blue Mountain College on Dec. 29 to give the program its 300th win in Lakefront Arena. In its third season as a member of the Southland, UNO is 1-1 in SLC openers and will look to repeat history from a year ago as the Privateers defeated the Cardinals 72-67 to open league play last Jan. 5.
"You get to start over," head coach
Mark Slessinger said. "It's a new season. We finished non-conference at 4-7. I wish we could have gotten two or three more of those to turn this around, but our team improved throughout all of this and got better. I'm anxious to start this run for a championship and get ready for a run at making the NCAA Tournament."
As a team, the Privateers are averaging 73.8 points, 38.5 rebounds, 14.3 assists, 9.3 steals and 2.6 blocks per game. Junior guard
Christavious Gill leads three UNO players averaging double figures offensively with 15.1 points per game while junior forward
Erik Thomas and junior point guard
Nate Frye sport respective scoring averages of 10.6 and 10.4. Thomas paces the team with 6.9 rebounds per game and sophomore
Travin Thibodeaux headlines the defense with 0.8 blocked shot per outing. Frye leads the Privateers with 4.0 assists per game and Gill has a team-best 2.2 steals-per-contest average.
New Orleans is connecting at a .416 clip from the field, hitting 272-of-654 shots from the floor and 62-of-167 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.371), while allowing opponents to shoot .436 overall (272-of-624) and .295 from 3-point land (69-of-234). Privateer foes are averaging 73.7 points, 38.1 rebounds, 13.7 assists, 8.7 steals and 4.8 blocks so far in 2015-16.
Lamar comes into the Monday matchup 9-4 on the year, 1-0 in Southland Conference action and riding the crest of a four-game winning streak dating back to an 80-56 win over Jarvis Christian on Dec. 18. In the league opener, the Cardinals downed Nicholls, 79-67, on Saturday in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
As a team, the Cardinals are averaging 79.7 points, 42.3 rebounds, 15.2 assists, 8.2 steals and 4.8 blocks per game. Nick Garth leads a balanced Lamar offense with 13.5 points per game, followed by Lincoln Davis at 10.2, Dorian Chatman at 9.8 and Kevin Booze at 9.7. Preston Mattingly paces the team with 5.8 rebounds per game and Christian Kennedy has a team-best 14 blocked shots. Booze headlines the unit with 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals per outing.
Lamar is hitting 43.2 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 344-of-797 field goal attempts, including an 88-of-271 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.325). The Cardinals' defense has allowed opponents to post a 40.0 shooting percentage (298-of-745) and a 29.1 clip from 3-point land (77-of-265). Lamar opponents are averaging 70.2 points, 36.6 rebounds, 13.6 assists, 5.3 steals and 3.2 blocks per game.
Monday's game between New Orleans and Lamar marks the 33rd meeting between the two teams will meet on the hardwood and the Privateers hold a commanding 25-7 advantage in the all-time series. UNO is 11-5 when facing Lamar in Beaumont, with the last win coming in a 64-62 decision on Nov. 22, 2006.
The series with the Cardinals dates back to Jan. 8, 1977, when UNO posted a 79-69 win in the Human Performance Center. The two teams split the next four games before New Orleans rattled off 13 consecutive wins in the series from 1988-94. Since joining the Southland Conference prior to the 2013-14 season, the Privateers are 2-1 against the Cardinals with both wins coming in Lakefront Arena. UNO has now sandwiched wins of 77-55 on Jan. 16, 2014 and 72-67 on Jan. 5, 2015, around an 89-72 loss in the Montagne Center on March 6, 2014.
The game at Lamar is the first of two road contests to open Southland Conference play as UNO will play at Sam Houston State on Saturday, Jan. 9, before returning home to face Incarnate Word on Monday, Jan. 11. Tickets to that contest, which is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m., and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking
HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).
--www.UNOPrivateers.com--
