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HAMMOND, La. – The University of New Orleans women's basketball team (7-15, 4-9 Southland) held off a Southeastern Lady Lions fourth quarter rally and won 62-51 on Thursday night at the University Center. The loss dropped Southeastern to 4-20 overall and 3-10 in conference.
Randi Brown set a new career high with 14 rebounds and scored 18 points. The Privateers also put the clamps on Southeastern, holding the Lady Lions to just 29.9 percent from the field for the game.
Halie Matthews added 11 points and five rebounds.
After struggling for three quarters, Southeastern started to press and force turnovers while crashing the boards, which helped cut a 19-point deficit entering the fourth quarter down to eight with six minutes remaining.
The Lady Lions cut the lead to as little as six with just over two minutes remaining, but the Privateers knuckled back down defensively and made a living at the free throw line, which accounted for a big advantage. The Privateers scored 16 more points and had 19 more attempts from the stripe than Southeastern to help vault them to their first road win of the season.
"They did exactly what I asked them to do," said Coach
Keeshawn Davenport. "Having a week to prepare, I think they did a great job of buying in and getting it done on the defensive end. They did a great job of holding them for three quarters to single digits."
The game started with a stalemate as neither team scored for the first three minutes of the contest. The Privateers broke the ice on the scoreboard with a Matthews lay-up. From there, both offenses hit a spurt for the next two minutes that saw the lead trade hands five different times. Southeastern led 7-6 at the media timeout in the opening stanza.
That's when the Privateers went on a huge run led by solid defense and a strong bench presence from
Raven Coleman. In the first half, Coleman played 15 minutes and scored six points while hauling in four rebounds. Meanwhile, Southeastern was held without a bucket for the remainder of the first quarter and the first 2:27 of the second. New Orleans scored 14 straight points in that stretch to take command with a 20-7 lead.
"Raven, Danielle, and Jewel responded in practice and they understood in the team meetings that it was going to be about defense," said Davenport. "They responded and I'm really excited about the way they came off the bench. The rebounding got away from us and we turned it over a little more in the second half than we want to, but when you have three quarters allowing single digits you can overcome some of that.
The first half ended with the Privateers taking a 30-16 lead into the locker room. In the first 20 minutes of play, New Orleans held the Lady Lions to just 24.1 percent from the field and 1-of-9 from three-point range. The Privateers also forced 11 Southeastern turnovers in the first half.
Southeastern was looking to chip away at the Privateers lead in the final two minutes of the third quarter as Taylin Underwood hit a triple to cut the advantage to 37-25. However, the Lady Lions committed a foul seconds afterward and the Privateers were able to extend their lead once again as Southeastern was held without a point for the rest of the quarter after that triple at the 1:59 mark.
The Lady Lions were led by Nanna Pool who had 15 points, 14 rebounds, two steals, two assists, and two blocks before fouling out. Underwood finished with 14 points but was just 5-for-18 from the field. KaeLynn Boyd was held to six points and had six turnovers to just two assists.
The Privateers are next in action at Northwestern State on Saturday. Tip is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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