Men's Hoops Falls To Southeastern Louisiana In SLC Tourney Opener

GAME BOOK (PDF) | POSTGAME QUOTES

KATY, Texas – Facing No. 5 seed Southeastern Louisiana for the third time in a 14-day stretch, the eighth-seeded University of New Orleans men's basketball team was hoping the third time would be the charm. The Lions, however, had other ideas as the Privateers dropped an 84-74 decision in the opening contest of the 2016 Southland Conference Tournament on Wednesday evening in the Leonard E. Merrell Center.

Junior guard Nate Frye scored a season-high 21 points to go with five rebounds and five assists, but Southeastern Louisiana answered with a balanced attack which saw five Lions finish in double figures offensively. SLU improves to 12-20 on the year and advance to face Houston Baptist in round two of the tournament on Thursday. The Privateers, meanwhile, conclude the 2015-16 season with a 10-20 overall record.

"Obviously, we're disappointed with how the season ended," UNO head coach Mark Slessinger sad. "We felt like we had good rhythm coming into tonight's game, we felt like we had prepared well and we felt we had a good game plan. We didn't execute the times we needed to.

"The biggest thing was we just weren't perfect defensively. We needed to be better defensively, especially in the first half. We made several runs in the second to get it within striking distance, but we just weren't able to get over the hump. It's a frustrating day for our program but we're excited about the future and the direction we're headed moving forward."

Junior guard Christavious Gill finished second to Frye for the UNO offense with 18 points while senior forward Kevin Hill had 10 points and eight rebounds in his final collegiate contest. Gill equaled Frye's assist total with five and the trio of Gill, Reed and junior forward Erik Thomas had one steal apiece.

Southeastern Louisiana scored the first five points of the game before New Orleans responded with an 11-2 run to up by four at the 17:09 mark. The Lions, however, responded with a 14-1 run over the next 4:31 to take a lead they would not relinquish and were up by as many as 12 at 37-25 with 5:57 to play before halftime. Undaunted, the Privateers rallied to make it a four-point game at 46-42  with 46 seconds to play in the stanza, but Southeastern Louisiana closed out the first-half scoring with a 3-point bucket by Zay Jackson to take a seven-point advantage into the locker room.

UNO continued to chip away at the deficit early in the second half and made it 49-48 in the opening minute of the final fram. The Privateers hung tough and trailed just 56-54 with 15:45 to play in regulation only to see the Lions responded with a 16-4 run to take a commanding 72-58 advantage.

A 3-pointer by freshman guard Cameron Reed the next time down the court made it an 11-point affair, but UNO's next field goal would not come for another 6:37 and Southeastern Louisiana was able to hold the Privateers at arms' length the rest of the way.

"It was a grudge match," Slessinger added. "We knew all of their calls and they knew all of ours. We knew what they were going to run, etcetera. In the end, they out-executed us on the offensive end. We didn't get the stops that we needed to in the key times that we needed. We have a lot that we'll take from this game. We'll learn, grow and develop to prepare for a championship run next year."

Jackson led Southeastern Louisiana with 17 points, followed by Joshua Filmore with 13, Marlain Veal with 11 and the duo of Jordan Capps and James Currington with 10 each. Capps posted a double-double with 10 rebounds, Filmore handed out a game-high seven assists and Moses Greenwood led all players with three steals.