Men's Basketball Travels To Face Northwestern On Sunday

QUOTES | NEW ORLEANS NOTES | NORTHWESTERN NOTES
WATCH LIVE | LISTEN LIVE | LIVE STATS

NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans men's basketball team will look to run its winning streak to four when the Privateers travel to Evanston, Ill., to face the Northwestern Wildcats on Sunday in Welsh-Ryan Arena. The game is slated to tipoff at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast live on the Big 10 Network.

Both teams enter the ballgame with heads of steam as UNO has a trio of buzzer-to-buzzer victories with home wins of 90-63 over Florida on Nov. 25 and 74-59 over Tulane before posting a 70-54 decision at Washington State on Dec. 3 and sits 4-3 on the young season. Northwestern, meanwhile, has won three-straight games itself with an 86-66 decision over Bryant on Nov. 25, a 65-58 victory over Wake Forest on Nov. 28 and an 80-64 win over DePaul to improve its record to 6-2.

"It's a great matchup," UNO head coach Mark Slessinger said. "Northwestern is very good. Coach Collins and his staff has done an incredible job, and they're right on the cusp of breaking through in the Big 10 Conference and getting their first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. We know we've got a great challenge ahead of us. It's the next game on our schedule and we have to do a good job of playing well in all facets."

New Orleans heads to Evanston, Ill., averaging 75.9 points, 37.6 rebounds, 16.4 assists, 8.0 steals and 3.4 blocks per game. Senior forward Erik Thomas leads the Privateers offensively with 21.0 points per game, followed by senior guard Christavious Gill with an average of 14.4 and junior forward Travin Thibodeaux with a mark of 9.0. Thomas also paces the team with 7.4 rebounds a night with Gill and Thibodeaux sharing team-high assist honors with 3.7 dimes per outing. Gill headlines the defense with 1.6 steals per game, and junior forward Makur Puou follow suit down low with 1.9 blocked shots per contest.

New Orleans is connecting at a .466 clip from the field, hitting 191-of-410 shots from the floor and 37-of-106 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.349), while allowing opponents to shoot .445 overall (191-of-429) and .329 from 3-point land (50-of-152). Privateer foes are averaging 75.0 points, 33.9 rebounds, 13.7 assists, 9.3 steals and 3.6 blocks so far in 2016-17.

"They're playing very well," Slessinger said of his team. "They're played very unselfish basketball and they're playing very hard. They've got a good attention to detail, so I feel good about where they're at as a group. Finals is always tricky. Guys get are stressed in a different way than normal and you have to learn how to deal with that. I'm glad that that is over and now that we're through it, we have to sustain a good effort on Sunday."

Northwestern enters the ballgame averaging 77.8 points, 38.4 rebounds, 18.4 assists, 5.3 steals and 6.5 blocks per game. Vic Law leads a balanced Northwestern offense with 16.1 points per game while Scottie Lindsey and Bryant McIntosh follow with respective scoring averages of 15.5 and 12.9. Dererk Pardon paces the team with 7.0 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, McIntosh leads the team with 4.6 assists per outing and Law headlines the defense with 1.3 steals per contest.

Northwestern is hitting 46.3 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 220-of-475 field goal attempts, including a 70-of-172 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.407). The Wildcat defense has allowed opponents to post a 38.2 shooting percentage (178-of-466) and a 31.1 clip from 3-point land (50-of-161) and their foes are averaging 65.1 points, 34.8 rebounds, 11.3 assists, 5.6 steals and 3.6 blocks per game.

"They're a great 3-point shooting team, first and foremost," Slessinger said of the Wildcats. "They shoot almost 41 percent from the 3 and they can shoot it at a high rate from just about anywhere with all five guys. They spread the floor very well offensively and they can execute. They also get to the glass pretty well.

"This is a huge opportunity for us to take another step forward as a program, the rebuilding of our program and the renaissance of New Orleans basketball. We know how big of a deal this is. The guys are excited for the challenge, but we know it's going to be a stiff challenge."

Sunday's game between New Orleans and Northwestern marks the third meeting between the two teams on the hardwood, and the Wildcats hold a 2-0 advantage in the all-time series. In the first-ever meeting, UNO dropped a 65-54 decision to Northwestern on Dec. 29, 1978 in the All College Tournament in Oklahoma City, Okla. The other meeting came last Nov. 28 when the Privateers fell to the Wildcats in Welsh-Ryan Arena, 90-63.

Following the game, UNO returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 17, when the Privateers play host to Louisiana-Lafayette at 2 p.m. in Lakefront Arena in a game slated to be broadcast live on Cox Sports Television. For tickets 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.