GAME BOOK (PDF) | VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH COACH SLESSINGER

NEW ORLEANS – Senior forward Erik Thomas (IDS/Business) posted a double-double with 10 rebounds to accompany a career-high 31 points and senior guard Christavious Gill (IDS/Behavioral Studies) became the 22^nd Privateer to reach the 1,000-point plateau for his career as the University of New Orleans men's basketball team posted a resounding season-opening 103-67 victory over LaGrange College Friday evening in Lakefront Arena.

The two teams sat deadlocked at 26-all with 7:51 to play in the first half before Thomas rattled off 10-consecutive points to stake the Privateers to a 36-26 advantage they would not relinquish. The victory marked the first time a New Orleans team reached triple digits in a season opener since 2005-06 when the program posted a 103-69 victory over Belhaven on Nov. 19, 2005, in a game played in UT-Tyler's Patriot Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"We're excited about this win over LaGrange College," UNO head coach Mark Slessinger said. "They're a very good club and they're extremely well coached. Early in the first half, we had some nerves and maybe a little too much excitement. Christavious hit 1,000 [career points] tonight, but he came over four shots into it and said, 'Coach, I'm too hyped up.' I think that was the case across the board.

"We didn't get overly excited at halftime. We just talked to them and settled them down a little bit. They just wanted to please. They wanted to do well and play well for this good crowd that we had here tonight. Overall, what a good night for us and what a great way to start the season. We had such great balance offensively."

As a team, UNO hit 48.6 percent of its field goals (34-of-70), including a 21-of-36 performance in the second half (.583) while holding LaGrange to a .359 clip for the contest (23-of-64). The Privateers held a 47-38 rebounding advantage, turned 22 offensive boards into 24 second-chance points, and outscored the Panthers 50-24 in the paint. Thanks in large part to Thomas' scoring effort off the bench, the UNO reserves outscored its counterparts 61-24.

Thomas surpasses his previous Division I career high of 18 (at Northwestern State on Feb. 20, 2016) during the game's opening 20 minutes, when he went 8-of-12 from the field enroute to 23 first-half points, and eclipsed his overall collegiate career-high of 28 (vs Southern-Shreveport on Feb. 26, 2015 while a sophomore at Baton Rouge Community College) with eight more points in the second half. Gill, meanwhile, finished the game with 13 points – including 10 in the second half – to bring his career total to exactly 1,000. He becomes the first UNO men's basketball student-athlete to reach four digits since Bo McCalebb accomplished the feat during his sophomore season in 2004-05.

Junior forward Makur Puou (Political Science) also finished in double figures offensively with 10 points to go with eight rebounds, one steal and a blocked shot in his first game at the Division I level. Senior guard Tevin Broyles (IDS/Health Studies) had three of UNO's 17 assists while Gill and Thomas shared team-high steal honors with three thefts each. All told, eight Privateers scored at least six points on the night, six tallied multiple-assist performances and three added multiple-steal efforts.

"Guys came in and they executed," Slessinger said. "You can really see that in our second half, 3-point field goal percentage. Guys came in and made big shots. Danny Cohen closed out the first half with that bit 3 in rhythm. Venjie Wallis came in and made one. Coleman Edwards came in and made one. We had a lot of guys play well over the course of the game. On top of that, Erik and Christavious were pretty good, too."

Neither team could establish control of the game early on as the first 12-plus minutes featured four ties and five lead changes before Thomas' 10-point rally, which included three basked after turnovers he forced and another bucket after pulling down an offensive rebound. Lagrange got to within six twice in the latter portions of the stanza but the Privateers closed out the half on an 8-2 run capped by Cohen's trey with 11 seconds before the break.

That basket sparked a 12-0 UNO run that spanned the two periods and 13-2 run midway through the frame to go ahead by as many as 40 at 90-50 with 6:07 to play. A big reason for the surge was the team's effort from beyond the 3-point arc as the Privateers went 6-of-11 from downtown after intermission with Gill going 2-for-2 and Edwards sinking two of his three tries from deep. The Panthers actually outscored the home team 17-13 the rest of the way, but the game had long since been decided.

Elijah Adedoyin and Richard Howell both finished with double-digit point totals with 16 and 11, respectively, to lead the LaGrange effort. Drew Vanderbrook, who added nine points, paced the Panthers with six rebounds and posted the team's lone block of the contest.

The Privateers return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 16, when they travel to Stillwater, Okla., to take on Oklahoma State. The game against the Cowboys is the first of a three-contest road swing as UNO will be at Tulsa on Nov. 19 and at Southern California on Nov. 22.

New Orleans' next home game is slated for Friday, Nov. 25, when it plays host to Florida College at 7 p.m. in Lakefront Arena. For tickets to that game, and future Privateer Athletics events, contact the UNO Athletics Ticket Office over the phone at (504) 280-GAME (4263) or via the Internet by clicking HERE.