Men's Basketball Falls In Overtime At Abilene Christian, 70-69

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ABILENE, Texas – When the final buzzer sounds and the scoreboard has you down by a single point, one can only look back and wonder what could have been done to come out on top. Was it offensive execution? Was it a key defensive breakdown? Were there too many turnovers?

For the Privateers on Wednesday evening in Moody Coliseum, it was a little bit of everything as the University of New Orleans men's basketball team dropped a heart-breaking 70-69 overtime decision to Southland Conference foe Abilene Christian. After rallying from an 11-point first half deficit and tying the game at the end of regulation on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by senior guard Nate Frye, UNO tailed by a point and saw a pair of potential go-ahead baskets fall off the mark in the waning moments.

The loss was the second in a row for the Privateers, who fall to 12-9 overall and 7-3 in Southland action. The Wildcats, meanwhile, snapped a three-game skid to improve to 9-12 on the year and 3-7 in league play.

"It was a huge game today and Abilene is such a hard place to play," UNO head coach Mark Slessinger said. "It seems like every time we come out here, it comes down to a crazy buzzer beater. There were a lot of them today, both in regulation and overtime. I'm very proud of the way the guys came back. They fought back, took the lead several times, but couldn't hold on. They hit a 3 to take the lead right before regulation, we come back and answer with a great 3 to put us into overtime. We just didn't close out the overtime period.

"We had too many turnovers throughout the course of the game. We made some key mistakes down the stretch where we lost focus and weren't able to get stops when we needed them. It was a great basketball game and a great signature of what this league is all about and how tough it is night in and night out."

As a team, New Orleans hit 52.0 percent of its shots from the field (26-of-50) and had an assist on 20 of its 26 baskets. Conversely, the Privateers allowed Abilene Christian to connect at a .531 clip (26-of-49), including an 11-of-24 showing from beyond the 3-point arc. Free throw shooting did not help matters much as UNO was just 13-of-24 from the stripe (.542), including a 2-of-8 effort in overtime.

After being out-rebounded 10-6 in the first half, UNO finished with a 34-24 advantage on the boards, but seven offensive boards led to 11 second-chance points for the Wildcats while 20 Privateer turnovers turned into another 14 points to the ACU tally.

Junior forward Travin Thibodeaux posted a double-double in defeat with game-high marks of 18 points and 10 rebounds to go with a team-best seven assists. He was one of four Privateers in double figures offensively as the senior trio of forward Erik Thomas, guard Christavious Gill and guard Tevin Broyles added 17, 13 and 11, respectively.

"He played really well throughout the game," Slessinger said of Thibodeaux's performance. "He played with great energy and we've got to keep him rolling on that. The big thing is we've just got to play better across the board. We need to keep grinding and keep working. This is a tough swing with four out of five being on the road. We knew it was going to be. We sure needed this one tonight really bad and we need to put our focus on Saturday now. It made our job a lot tougher."

The Privateers trailed 53-47 sigh 5:56 to play in regulation and rallied to ahead on a jumper by junior forward Makur Puou 3:23 later to put UNO ahead 56-55. The two teams traded buckets over the next three minutes and sat tied at 58 all with 29 seconds on the clock. Abilene Christian appeared to deliver the game-deciding blow when Jalone Friday buried a 3-pointer with 3.0 seconds to go, but following a timeout, New Orleans answered with Frye's trey to send the game into the extra stanza.

The momentum of the big basket, however, did not carry over into the overtime period. Abilene Christian's B.J. Maxwell hit a layup and a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 66-61 lead and the Privateers were 0-of-2 from the field and just 1-of-6 from the free throw line over the first three minutes of the frame.

A basket by Thomas and a free throw by the Wildcats' Jaylen Franklin made it 67-64 in favor of the home team, but Broyles converted a layup while being fouled and drained the ensuing free throw to tie the game at 67-all with 1:09 to play. As he did near the end of regulation, Friday nailed a 3-pointer to put Wildcats ahead, and that would be Abilene Christian's final points of the contest. A Following a put-back layup by Broyles and a pair of missed free throws on the other end by Isaiah Tripp, UNO had a chance its chances in over the final 15 seconds only to be ultimately be denied.

UNO scored on the game's opening possession on a layup by Thibodeaux and the two teams sat tied at 6-all 3:48 into the contest. Abilene Christian, which opened the game a perfect 4-for-4 shooting, with each of them coming from beyond the 3-point arc, followed with back-to-back treys by Hayden Howell and Drake Green to take a 6-4 lead. The Privateers used a 12-10 run to tie the contest at 16-16, but Abilene Christian scored 11 of the game's next 13 points to go up by double figures. The Wildcat's first-half lead swelled to as many as 11 on a Jaylen Franklin bucket with 48 seconds remaining in the stanza and a Gill layup sent the Privateers into the locker room at the break trailing 36-27.

Following halftime, the Privateer defense held the Wildcats to a 1-for-11 showing from the field over the first 10 minutes of the second stanza and outscored Abilene Christian 18-7 during that stretch to take a 45-43 lead. A back-and-forth battle ensued over the next five possessions before the ACU sandwiched 3-pointers by Friday and Jaren Lewis around a Frye free throw to make it 53-47 and set up the drama that unfolded the rest of the way.

"We just turned it over too much," Slessinger added. "We were shooting 66 percent at halftime and we're down nine. There were costly turnovers and dumb turnovers. We just weren't playing well or doing the things that we needed to do. It's disappointing. We played at a much higher rate and played much better. We just dug ourselves too big of a hole to be able to come out of this thing and recover. We left ourselves no margin for error."

Friday led Abilene Christian with 15 points, followed by Lewis and Trip with 13 each, and Franklin with 12. Franklin paced the Wildcats with seven assists and three steals while sharing team-high rebounding honors with Maxwell at four apiece.

The Privateers return to action on Saturday, Feb. 4, when they play host to Nicholls at 4 p.m. in Lakefront Arena. The men's game is the second half of a UNO basketball doubleheader as the two school's women's programs will play at 4 p.m. as part of Homecoming 2017, presented by the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The men's game is slated to start at approximately 6:15 p.m., and will be broadcast live on ESPN3 and tape delayed at 11 p.m. locally on WHNO-TV.

For tickets to that game, as well as future New Orleans Athletics events, contact the UNO Athletics Ticket Office over the phone at (504) 280-GAME (4263) or via the Internet by clicking HERE.