Basketball's Win Streak Snapped In 112-77 Loss At Central Arkansas

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CONWAY, Arkansas – When the University of New Orleans men's basketball team took the court at the Farris Center on Saturday afternoon, it was as if the squad was living out the lyrics of Credence Clearwater Revival's 1969 hit single Lodi – "things got bad and things got worse, I guess you know the tune."
 
That was exactly the case for the Privateers (8-13, 4-6) against Southland Conference foe Central Arkansas (4-15, 3-6) and it was a bit of a different tune of late as the Bears scored the first four points and never trailed at any point as UNO saw its three-game winning streak come to an end with a 112-77 loss.
 
"There are no positives form this loss, absolutely zero," UNO head coach Mark Slessinger said. "Nothing good came out of tonight. It was an unbelievably horrible night across the board – from the point of execution or from the point of our standard of play offensively and defensively. I couldn't be more disappointed in what happened, especially considering the opportunity we had before us. We simply did not answer the call.
 
"I give credit to Central Arkansas. They came out ready to play, ready to execute. Nothing changed in their game plan. They ran the same stuff they ran the last time we played. They ran the same defense – the same 2-3 zone. We just didn't play at a very high level. We were very poor in every aspect of this basketball game."
 
As a team, the Privateers hit a respectable 41.2 percent of its field goals (28-of-68), including a 16-of-33 showing in the second half (.485). Central Arkansas, however, connected at a .621 clip (41-of-66) from the field and drained nine 3-pointers to come away with the lopsided win.
 
Junior guard Christavious Gill led three UNO players in double figures offensively with 22 points while junior forward Erik Thomas and sophomore wing Michael Zeno added 13 and 10, respectively. Zeno paced the Privateers with seven rebounds, Gill had a team-best five assists and sophomore forward Travin Thibodeaux chipped in with a pair of steals.
 
"We had a very good practice yesterday," Slessinger said. "Shoot around was sharp and good. We covered the things we needed to cover. The scouting report was on point with what we needed. But we got into the gym and it was bad. We did not do anything right. We did not do anything to the standard defensively that we set the whole day, and that was obvious by the percentages that they shot. It was a poor, poor da
 
Central Arkansas scored the first four points of the game and the Bears' advantage never dipped below three the rest of the night. After going down by a dozen, UNO whittled the deficit to nine at 19-10 with 14:03 to play before halftime and again at 21-12 two possessions later only to see UCA take control of the contest courtesy of a 17-4 run to make it a 22-point at the midway point of the period. The Bears' advantage swelled to as many as 27 at 58-31 with 52 seconds to go in the stanza and a pair of free throws by junior guard Tevin Broyles send UNO into the locker room down 25.
 
The Privateers opened the second half on a 10-2 run to get the Bears' lead down to 17, but could get no closer. The  Central Arkansas advantage hovered around 20 points over the first five-plus minutes of the final frame and the Bears gradually stretched the lead as the game moved along. UNO made it a 23-point contest at 100-77 on a Gill layup with 3:26 to play before UCA scored the final 12 points of the contest to account for the final score.
 
Jordan Howard led Central Arkansas with a game-high 36 points after sinking 11-of-20 field goals, including  6-of-13 showing from beyond the 3-point arc, and draining eight of his nine free-throw opportunities. Mathieu Kamba and Justin Foreman were next for the Bears with 17 each. Jake Zuilhof fell one point shy of a double-double with nine points and a game-best 11 rebounds and led all players with three blocked shots. Jeff Lowery came off the Bears' bench to tally nine assists as did Boo Milligan to tally a pair of steals.
 
"We'll go back to work tomorrow, get back in the gym and prepare for McNeese," Slessinger added. "I'm going to be as nice and politically correct as I can be, but we're going to have some very, very hard evaluations from this game and what we have to do to get back to playing the way we played in the previous three games. I feel like we let a lot of people down today. I'm sorry and I'm disappointed for not only our program but department and our supporters."
 
New Orleans returns to action on Thursday, Feb. 11, when the Privateers head to Lake Charles, Louisiana, for a 7 p.m. showdown at McNeese State before returning to Lakefront Arena on Feb. 17 for a showdown against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tickets to that game and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).