KATY – On Thursday night the University of New Orleans Basketball (18-14, 10-4 Southland) team pulled away from McNeese late in the contest – on Friday night it was the opposite at the Merrell Center as Southeastern (19-13, 10-4 Southland) got the best of the Privateers 74-65 in the semifinals of the Southland Conference tournament
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HOW IT HAPPENED
Troy Green and
Derek St. Hilaire combined for six points and four boards in the game's first few possessions giving the Privateers an early 8-7 lead at the first media time out.
Green intercepted a wild pass from Joe Kasperzyk and as he stumbled in the open court his pass found
Jahmel Myers - the first Privateer off the bench - for a beautiful one-handed floater in traffic. On the next UNO possession
Kmani Doughty rattled home a straight away three giving UNO an early 13-8 advantage with 12:35 left in the half.
After a corner three from Ryan Burkhardt tied the game at 25, Green took the ball away from Gus Okafor and took the ball the length of the floor for a circus layup to make it 27-25. SLU super sub Kasperzyk found Jalyn Hinton for a dunk, and then sank a three himself to give the Lions a 32-29 lead.
Daniel Sackey answered with a three ball of his own before a slick three-pass ball movement by Southeastern saw their best three-baller Burkhardt knock down a corner three and force a UNO time out with the score 35-32 in favor of SLU.
A back and forth first half that saw five lead changes and the game tied 10 times finished with the Lions on a 7-0 run over the last two minutes and four seconds to take that lead into the break.
UNO came out of the intermission sharp, and when
Tyson Jackson was fouled for the first Privateer free throw attempts of the game the big man from Fairburn knocked down both shots cutting the Lion lead to 41-40.
UNO turned up the defensive intensity with a pair of steals from St. Hilaire, and a jump shot from Green gave the Privateers a 51-48 lead with about 12 minutes left to play.
After Kasperzyk made the score 64-59 SLU, St. Hilaire missed a three-pointers, but Green knocked the ball away from Kasperzyk at half court and took it in uncontested cutting the Lion advantage to just three points 64-61 with four minutes left in the game.
Green sank a pair of free throws with 2:44 remaining making it 64-63 and the Privateer defense forced Burkhardt into a missed three-pointer, but the Privateers were called for a foul under the basket on the rebound attempt. Two free throws later the Lion lead was 66-63.
Jayln Hinton cut his way to the basket expanding the SLU advantage to five, and then with UNO choosing not to foul, Roger McFarlane shut the door on the Privateers with a layup giving the Lions a seven-point lead with 32 seconds to play.
INSIDE THE BOX
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Troy Green collected his second double-double in the last three games, and fourth of his career with 14 points and 12 rebounds. He shot 10-of-19 from the floor and finished with three assists and four steals.
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Daniel Sackey finished with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
- UNO, who coming into the evening had taken the third most free throws in the NCAA, did not shoot a free throw until the 16:40 mark of the second half. New Orleans ended up 10-of-13 from the line, all in the second half.
- The Privateer bench was outscored by the Lions bench 35-7.
- Jayln Hinton blocked the most Privateer shots, 7, by an opponent this season.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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