Hot-shooting No. 5 UNO drops No. 8 Southeastern Louisiana, 80-63

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KATY, Texas – Fifth seed New Orleans looked a lot like the team that reached the 2019 Southland Conference Tournament finals, going wire-to-wire in an 80-63 win over eighth seed Southeastern Louisiana Wednesday evening in a 2021 Hercules Tires Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament second round game at the Leonard E. Merrell Center.

New Orleans (10-14), which has won six of its last seven, moves on to meet No. 4 Northwestern State Thursday at 5 p.m. CT.

“Our guys have played at such a high level since we came back from our Covid pause,” said UNO coach Mark Slessinger. “I’ve been so proud of their effort, their attitude and how selfless they’ve played. (Wednesday evening) was a great example of how they’ve been playing and how committed they’ve been to playing team basketball.”

UNO was never seriously threatened as a rapid start set the stage for the Privateers to take a 38-22 lead into intermission behind an offense that shot 52 percent from the field and a swarming defense that forced nine turnovers.

Second Team All-Southland guard Damion Rosser and Derek St. Hilaire combined for 27 of New Orleans’ 38 first half points, with St. Hilaire connecting on 4-of-6 from three-point range. Rosser finished with 15 points, five rebounds and two assists, while St. Hilaire scored a team-high 20 points to go along with four boards and two assists.

Playing with just eight scholarship players on Wednesday, Southeastern Louisiana (7-18) was unable to find the offensive spark that allowed them to eliminate McNeese on Tuesday night, shooting just 30.4 percent (7-for-23) in the first half with Gus Okafor – who scored 26 in the opening round – held to just 1 of 5 from the field in opening 20 minutes.

The offensive effort was a sharp contrast from the previous meeting against UNO on March 3 when the Lions narrowly lost an 81-76 overtime slugfest.

“We missed a lot of open shots,” said Southeastern Louisiana coach David Keifer. “I don’t think we had as much movement. We did a much better job last time sharing the ball and constantly moving.”

An inability to protect the ball also doomed the Lions, who committed 17 turnovers.

The Privateers stormed out of the gate, with a steal and breakaway dunk from Rodney Carson sparking the initial 17-6 run. UNO also played solid defense, holding Southeastern Louisiana to just 3-for-10 to open the contest.

Unable to solve the oppressive defense of the Privateers, the Lions continued to fall further behind. Meanwhile, a pair of baskets from Rosser and a three-pointer from St. Hilaire enabled New Orleans to extend their lead to 28-12 at the 7:27 mark of the first half.

Southeastern Louisiana had spurts of offense, yet it still wasn’t enough to keep pace with UNO, who never allowed the Lions to get within 10 points for most of the first half.

Not much changed in the second half. An emphatic dunk from D’Ante Bell put the Privateers up 45-28, and while the Lions stayed resilient, they were still unable to work their way within single digits. UNO continued to look for the decisive blow and found it via a Rosser dunk within 13:14 remaining to make it 56-36. The Privateers stretched the lead to 64-42 at the midway point of the second half, allowing Slessinger to begin emptying his bench.

“It’s kind of hard to overlook a team that has won six of their last seven games,” said Rosser. “If they’re still overlooking us, they’d better watch out because we’re pretty hot now.”

Keon Clergeot led Southeastern Louisiana with a game-high 22 points, while Isiah Kirby added 10 for the Lions, who will return all but Clergeot and Elijah Ifejeh for the 2021-22 season.

UNO and Northwestern State split the regular season series. The Demons claimed an 81-73 home win on January 27 but the Privateers pulled out a 92-83 win at home on March 3.

Another look at the #SCtop10 nominee courtesy of @jmyers121 #NOLAsTeam⚔️ pic.twitter.com/bLIagKObos

— #NOLAsTeam⚔️ (@UNOPrivateers) March 11, 2021

Another look at the D'Ante Bell dunk #SCtop10 | #NOLAsTeam⚔️ pic.twitter.com/N9s0qnADbo

— #NOLAsTeam⚔️ (@UNOPrivateers) March 11, 2021

SLU 63 (8-18)
Caldwell 3-5, 2-2 8, Okafor 2-9, 2-3 7, Kirby 4-5, 2-2 10, Clergeot 8-16, 6-7 22, Warren 2-11, 2-2 6, Ifejeh 0-2, 4-4 4, Smith 0-4, 0-0 0, Kemp 1-1, 0-2 3, Romanov 0-0, 0-0 0, Strange 0-0, 0-0 0, Brackmann 0-0, 0-0 0, Howell 1-2, 0-0 3
Totals 21-56, 18-22 63

UNO 80 (10-14)
Bell 1-1, 0-0 2, Rosser 6-10, 3-5 15, Green 3-5, 5-6 11, St. Hilaire 5-10, 6-7 20, Carson 4-6, 1-2 10, Berzat 0-1, 2-2 2, Freeman 4-5, 2-2 10, Myers 2-2, 0-0 4, Doughty 2-3, 0-0 5, Rodgers 0-0, 0-0 0, Bohannon 0-0, 1-2 1, Marshall 0-0, 0-0 0, Tong 0-1, 0-0 0, Holmes 0-0, 0-0 0
Totals 27-45, 20-26 71