Men's Basketball Travels To Conway To Face Central Arkansas

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CONWAY, Ark. – The quest for a Southland Conference regular-season championship continues for the Privateers on Saturday, Jan. 20, as the University of New Orleans men's basketball team hits the road to take on Central Arkansas at 4 p.m. in the Farris Center.

While there is still a long way to go, UNO enters the game alone atop the SLC standings at 5-1 and winners of six of its last eight games. The game upcoming game, however, proves to be a tough one as the Bears' home court has been a tough place for the team to play historically and Central Arkansas features one of the best guards in the conference in Jordan Howard.

"It's going to be a tough game for us," head coach Mark Slessinger said. "This is one of the tougher places to play in the league. We had a long day of travel today, leaving New Orleans at about 5:45 this morning. [Central Arkansas is] a really, really talented offensive team. They can score in a lot of ways. They're really good in transition offense and they have one of the elite guards in the conference in Howard."

Fresh off a 72-64 win over Houston Baptist on Thursday night in Lakefront Arena, New Orleans heads to Conway averaging 73.5 points, 35.8 rebounds, 16.2 assists, 7.9 steals and 3.6 blocks per game. Senior forward Erik Thomas leads the Privateers offensively with 20.1 points per game, followed by senior guards Christavious Gill with an average of 12.5 and Nate Frye with a mark of 11.6. Thomas also paces the team with 8.1 rebounds a night with junior forward Travin Thibodeaux leading the squad with 3.8 assists per game. Gill holds team-high steal honors with 1.5 thefts per outing, and junior forward Makur Puou headlines the defense with 1.4 blocked shots per contest.

New Orleans is connecting at a .468 clip from the field, hitting 446-of-954 shots from the floor and 70-of-228 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.307), while allowing opponents to shoot .451 overall (440-of-975) and .315 from 3-point land (110-of-349). Privateer foes are averaging 72.9 points, 32.6 rebounds, 13.4 assists, 8.8 steals and 3.1 blocks so far in 2016-17.

Central Arkansas, meanwhile, enters Saturday's ballgame 4-15 on the season, 3-3 in Southland action and looking to snap a two-game skid after dropping an 88-81 decision at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Jan. 14 and falling 82-72 to McNeese on Wednesday night in Lake Charles, La.

As a team, the Bears are averaging 71.3 points, 36.1 rebounds, 13.8 assists, 5.7 steals and 2.6 blocks per game. Jordan Howard leads three UCA players averaging double figures offensively with a 19.4 point-per-game average while Mathieu Kamba and Derreck Brooks follow with respective scoring marks of 14.1 and 13.3. Howard also paces the team in assists and steals with 2.7 dimes and 1.5 thefts per outing. Kamba leads the squad in rebounding with 7.2 boards per outing and Brooks headlines the defense with 1.1 blocks per contest.

Central Arkansas is hitting 42.4 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 474-of-1118 attempts, including a 117-of-339 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.345). The Bear defense has allowed opponents to post a 46.8 shooting percentage (567-of-1211) and a 38.7 clip from 3-point land (210-of-542) and their foes are averaging 84.3 points, 37.5 rebounds, 18.9 assists, 7.8 steals and 3.2 blocks per game.

"We've got to continue to progress as a team," Slessinger said. "We've got to continue to defend it at a high level, we've got to rebound it at a high level and we have to get much better at offensive execution down the stretch. We've had chances to grow leads and stretch them out, but we just get sloppy or make some turnovers off of something that we've worked on. Hopefully we can continue to work and clean that up."

Saturday's game between New Orleans and Central Arkansas marks just the sixth meeting between the two teams on the hardwood and the Privateers hold a slight 3-2 advantage in the all-time series. All of those games have come since UNO joined the Southland Conference for the 2013-14 campaign, including a 1-2 mark in Conway, Ark.

The Privateers won the first-two head-to-head showdowns against the Bears with an 88-79 road decision on Feb. 8, 2014 and an 87-67 home win on Jan. 26, 2015. Since then, Central Arkansas has sandwiched a 70-67 victory on Feb. 7, 2015, and a 112-77 outcome on Feb. 6, 2016, around a UNO 94-83 home win on Feb. 25, 2016.

Saturday's game is the first of two regular-season meetings between UNO and UCA during the 2016-17 regular season as the two teams will square off again on Feb. 18 in Lakefront Arena.

Following the game against the Bears, the Privateers return to action on Thursday, Jan. 26, when they play host to McNeese at 7 p.m. in Lakefront Arena. For tickets to that game, 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.