NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers hit a barrage of shots late and nearly pulled off a comeback for the ages but ran out of time as they fell 84-79 to the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks on Saturday at Lakefront Arena.
Stephen F. Austin looked to be in command as they held a 75-61 lead with 3:13 remaining. That's when the Privateers started their comeback attempt. New Orleans hit six consecutive shots with five of them coming from three-point range.
Coleton Benson knocked down three of those shots and
Kedrick Osby hit a three that cut the Stephen F. Austin lead to 81-79 with 27.9 seconds remaining.
Ahamed Mohammed was fouled with the shot clock off and he made two free throws to put the Lumberjacks up four. Benson's three nearly banked in but the ball would not go down and Stephen F. Austin got the rebound that helped them stave off the furious Privateer rally.
Both teams cleared 50 percent from the field in a high-scoring first half that had nothing in between them by the half. Stephen F. Austin shot 51.5 percent from the field and the Privateers connected on 56.7 percent of their field goal attempts.
The Privateers led by as many as 10 points on three different occasions.
Jakevion Buckley had 14 first half points and he hit a mid-range jumper with 3:01 left that gave the Privateers a 38-28 advantage.
Stephen F. Austin responded through the hot hand of Lateef Patrick who hit three triples in the final minutes of the half. His last tied the game at 41-41, which stood as the halftime score.
Patrick finished with 29 points to lead the Lumberjacks. Keon Thompson added 15 points and seven boards. Jerald Colonel had a team-high nine rebounds.
INSIDE THE BOX
Jakevion Buckley led the Privateers with 24 points on 10-of-16 from the field and added seven assists.
Churchill Abass had 13 points, nine rebounds and six blocks. It was the most blocks in a game by a Privateer since Kevin Hill had seven in 2014 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Benson finished with 17 points on the night.
NEXT UP
The Privateers will host Lamar on Monday at 7 p.m.
BLUES ON TUES. NEWSLETTER
To keep up with all athletics news at the University of New Orleans, subscribe
here for our weekly newsletter.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow @PrivateesrHoops on
Twitter and
Instagram, like /PrivateersHoops on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.
