NEW ORLEANS – The wins keep rolling in for
Mark Slessinger and the University of New Orleans Privateers (13-8, 6-0 Southland) after they defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (16-7, 3-3 Southland) 79-70 on Thursday evening at the Dugan Wellness Center.
PRIVATEERS KEEP WWWWWWWWWINNING
The Privateers have now won nine games in a row matching Tic Price's 1995-1996 NCAA Tournament squad. If the Privateers win on Saturday at UIW it will be the first 10 game winning streak since Tim Floyd's 1992-1993 squad had winning streaks of both 10 and 13 games.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Smothering first half defense held the Islanders to just 25% from the field and the Privateers forced six turnovers on the way to a 31-22 halftime advantage.
Simeon Kirkland erased a Terrion Murdix layup attempt on one end, and the Islander junior fouled a streaking
Daniel Sackey on the other.
Tyson Jackson's jumper with 8:15 to play sparked a 15-6 UNO for the rest of the first half.
Derek St. Hilaire drove and scored giving UNO a 20-16 lead with 7:02 remaining in the half – the largest lead of any team at that point. Sackey's scoop layup in traffic extended the UNO lead to 27-18 with 3:24 to play in the first half.
A loose ball scramble led to a Rodney Carson pull up jumper giving the Privateers their first double-digit lead of the game with under three minutes to play in the first half.
The momentum continued into the second half when St. Hilaire took a loose ball, bounced it off the floor and alley-ooped it to himself for a #SCTop10 worthy dunk near the 18-minute mark of the second half.
Kmani Doughty hit a step-back three giving the Privateers a 53-39 lead with 11 minutes to play. Trevian Tennyson's third three-point basket off the game, a pair of free throws from Murdix, and another three-pointer from Jalen Jackson made it 60-50 with nine minutes left to play.
Another highlight reel reverse dunk by St. Hilaire made the score 70-58 with 4:53 left in the game.
With the Privateers battling foul trouble, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi cut the Privateer lead to eight a few times but got no closer as the Privateers held on for another big road win.
INSIDE THE BOX
- St. Hilaire had another 20-point game on 10-of-18 shooting, the 17
th of his career and a pair of highlight reel dunks to pace the Privateers. The graduate student finished with 23 points, five rebounds and four assists.
- Sackey scored seven first half points to help extend the Privateer lead late in the first half. He finished the game with nine points, four rebounds and an assist.
- Doughty finished with 9 points, making all six of his free throw attempts – a new career-high in made free throws.
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Troy Green's layup with 5:52 remaining gave him 1,600 points in his career – he becomes just the third ever in school history to score 1,600 or more. (Ervin Johnson had 1,608, Mel Henderson had 1,900, and Bo McCalebb finished with 2,679)
- The Southland's top-ranked three-point defense held the Islanders to 5-20 (25%) from beyond the arc. The Islanders made just 32.8% of their shots in the game, and the UNO defense had seven steals and four blocks.
SLESS KEEPS GAINING ONE GREENE
Mark Slessinger now has a 144 career wins at UNO, trailing Ron Greene by two games for the most wins all-time by a UNO men's basketball coach. Coach Sless has coached the most games in program history (317), and every Southland game in program history as well.
NEXT UP
The Privateers travel to San Antonio for a matchup with UIW. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+, and on NASH 106.1 FM. Tipoff is set for 4:00 p.m.
