Southeastern jumps out to big lead, holds off UNO in Hammond

HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana used an 18-0 run to pull out to a 23-point halftime lead, then held off a second-half charge by New Orleans in moving closer to clinching a Southland Conference Tournament bid with a 71-64 win in the University Center Wednesday night.

The Lions (17-10, 11-3 Southland), who tied the 2003-04 squad for the second-most conference wins in a season, can clinch a berth in next month’s tournament with a win or a loss by McNeese in the final four games. Southeastern also won 17 games overall for the first time since 2009-10 with its fourth-straight win.

Senior forward Jordan Capps led the Lions with 18 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard Marlain Veal tossed in 14 points and had five assists. Junior forward Moses Greenwood added 11 points while senior guard Joshua Filmore had five assists. Southeastern shot 48.1 percent, 53.3 percent in the opening half.

New Orleans (13-12, 10-4 Southland) was led by Troy Green with 13 points. Lamont Berzat contributed 11 points while Travin Thibodeaux had a team-high seven rebounds. The Privateers shot 40 percent overall, 53.3 percent in the second half.

Southeastern limited New Orleans to 24.0 percent from the floor in the first half, holding the Privateers scoreless for a span of 8:46 in taking a 40-17 lead at the break.

A Veal jumper kept the lead at 44-19 with 19:12 remaining. New Orleans used a 9-0 run to get to within 44-28 on a Berzat layup with 14:41 left. After a Greenwood jumper pushed the lead back to 18, the Privateers used another 11-3 run to close to within 51-41 on a Diontae Champion layup at the 9:37 mark.

Veal knocked down a 3 to give Southeastern a 57-43 lead with 7:13 left. New Orleans cut the margin to 60-50 on a Makur Puou free throw at the 3:48 mark but Greenwood responded with a putback and a layup. A three-point play by Thibodeaux made it 66-60 with 1:04 left. But Filmore found Capps inside for a dunk with 49 seconds remaining. After an Ezekiel Charles putback made it 68-62 with 32 seconds left, Capps picked up a steal near midcourt and went in for a dunk to seal the win with 10 seconds left.

After New Orleans took a 5-2 lead on a Robinson 3 at the 19:01 mark, Southeastern went on an 18-0 run over the next 8:44. Senior guard Jabbar Singleton hit a pair of 3s and Capps took a steal in for a dunk to give the Lions a 12-5 lead at the first media timeout with 14:44 remaining. Senior forward James Currington and Greenwood scored off assists by Filmore and Veal added a jumper as Southeastern went up 20-5 with 10:30 left.

Charles broke the scoreless spell for the Privateers with a 3 with 10:15 remaining. But the Lions used a 13-2 spurt to take their biggest lead of the half at 40-15 on a Capps layup with 1:01 left.

NOTES
Southeastern has now taken five of the last six in the series after New Orleans won the first 11 meetings.

Veal moved into a tie for second with Bernard Sylve (1990-91) and Nate Lofton (2004-05) on the Southeastern single-season steal list with his 60th of the season. Hank Washington holds the record with 79 in 1992-93.

Filmore played in his 107th game at Southeastern, tying Jerry Kelly (1979-83) and Troy Green (1995-99) for ninth place on the Lions career list.

The teams combined to shoot 41 free throws in the second half.

QUOTES
Southeastern head coach Jay Ladner:
“It was a tale of two halves. The game was real choppy. We got off to a great start and thank God we did. We built such a good lead and we knew they would come back. It’s happened to us a couple of times and we have to learn from it. It was a typical Southeastern-UNO basketball game. I wish we could have finished it in a little more clean way but the bottom line is they are a good basketball team and it was a good win for our program. I’m proud of that and we now have to get ready for a quick turnaround against another good team on Saturday.”

UP NEXT
Southeastern goes for a season sweep of Abilene Christian Saturday at 5 p.m. in the University Center. The Lions will host their annual men’s basketball Alumni Reunion in conjunction with the game. For more information on the event, contact Southeastern Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing and Development Tom Dawsey at (985) 549-5226 or tdawsey@selu.edu.