NEW ORLEANS – Trailing by 13 at halftime, the University of New Orleans men's basketball team (2-12, 0-3 Southland) was able to cut UTRGV's (10-4, 2-1 Southland) lead to six with 2:39 remaining before eventually falling to UTRGV, 76-64, on Saturday night at Lakefront Arena.
Playing in front of a home crowd for the first time in 57 days, a short-handed Privateers squad was unable to take advantage early, as UTRGV jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and forced an early timeout from
Stacy Hollowell.
Dae Dae Hunter's back-to-back 3-pointers helped UNO get back into the game, cutting the deficit to 10-8 with 15:22 to play.
Vaqueros guard Hasan Abdul Hakim knocked down three triples, sparking a 12-2 run over the next 3:25 as UTRGV started to pull away. The Vaqueros made 11-of-24 three-pointers and outrebounded the Privateers 22-12 on their way to a 43-30 halftime advantage.
James White and
MJ Thomas — who finished with his first career double-double — scored nine combined points on an 11-4 UNO run to start the second half.
Jah Short's dunk with 15:04 to play had the Privateers trailing by just six.
Down by 14 with 10:48 to play following a layup by Kwo Agwa, the Privateers made one final push, with eight more points from White, along with free throws from Thomas and
Theo Grant, cutting UTRGV's lead to five with 6:43 left in the game. New Orleans would get no closer than six the rest of the way as UTRGV extended its lead over the final minutes for its first victory at Lakefront Arena since 1989.
White finished with 23 points on 11-of-23 shooting, his league-leading eighth game with 20 or more points, and his second game of the season with 10 or more field goals. White also pulled down eight rebounds — his 10th game with eight or more boards this season.
Thomas scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Hunter finished with 11 points and three made 3-pointers. New Orleans turned the ball over just eight times on Monday night.
Abdul Hakim led UTRGV in scoring with a 22-point, 12-rebound double-double. Agwa finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, and K.T. Raimey finished with 12 points.
Next up for the Privateers is a home contest against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders (9-6, 2-1 Southland) on Monday night. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at Lakefront Arena. The game will air on
ESPN+,
Southland International outside of the United States, and locally on
The Ticket 106.1 FM.
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