Things Get Away Late As Men's Basketball Falls At Utah State, 76-66

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LOGAN, Utah – The University of New Orleans men's basketball team left everything it had on the court, but a late rally by Utah State lifted the homestanding Aggies to a 76-66 win over the Privateers on Monday evening in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

Following a back-and-forth first half, which saw UNO go into halftime down 33-31, Utah State used an early second-half run to take 48-39 lead with 14:20 left to play. The Privateers got as close as one and trailed by just five with 3:19 remaining before the Aggies hit some key buckets and converted 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch to account for the final margin.

The loss was the third in a row for UNO, which fell to 4-6 on the year. Utah State, meanwhile, won its second-straight ballgame to improve to 6-4.

The Privateers connected on 12-of-27 field goals in the first half (.444), but converted at a .375 clip after halftime (12-of-32) to finish the game with a 40.7 field goal percentage (24-of-59). Utah State hit half of its shots during the contest, including a 12-of-19 showing in the second half (.632) to finish 24-of-48 from the field.

Senior forward Erik Thomas led three Privateers in double figures offensively with 21 points and shared game-high rebounds with junior forward Travin Thibodeaux at nine apiece. Senior guard Christavious Gill was next for UNO with 12 points while junior forward Makur Puou added 10.

For the second consecutive game, senior guard Nate Frye came off the bench to lead the team in assists – tallying five dimes to go with seven points, four rebounds and a steal in 26 minutes of action – and Gill headlined the UNO defense with four steals.

Neither team led by more than four points in the opening period as the teams traded blows for the majority of the first half. New Orleans jumped out to a 4-1 lead early on – its largest advantage of the first 20 minutes of play – and Utah State's biggest lead came late in the period as Koby McEwen broke a 29-all tie with a pair of free throws and Quinn Taylor converted a layup to make it 33-29. Thomas scored a put-back bucket just before the horn sounded to signal the break and UNO went into the locker room down by a deuce.

It remained a two-point game 2:50 into the second half as the Privateers trailed 40-38, but the Aggies blew things open with an 8-1 run over the next 3:36 to take a commanding 48-39 advantage. New Orleans answered with a 10-2 run to get to within one at 50-49 with 8:53 remaining in regulation only to see Utah State come right back with a 7-2 rally to make it a six-point affair.

A three-point play by Thibodeaux made it 57-54 with 5:24 to play, but the Aggies took advantage of a pair of Privateer fouls to sink four free throws to stretch the lead back to seven. UNO got to within five points twice over the next minute only to see Utah State get a jumper from Jalen Moore and a combined five points by McEwen to put the game out of reach.

The Privateers return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 21, when they play host to Williams Baptist at 7 p.m. in Lakefront Arena. The contest against the Eagles is the first of a three-game homestand as UNO will open Southland Conference action on Dec. 29 against Abilene Christian before squaring off against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 31. For tickets those games, as well as 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.