Lions can’t find range in loss at Southern

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men’s basketball team struggled to find the range against Southern, leading the Lions to a 69-44 loss to the Jaguars Saturday afternoon at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.

Brody Rowbury gave Southeastern (2-7) its first lead of the game as his layup made the score 3-2. Southern (3-6) opened a four-point lead at 9-5 before baskets by Rowbury and Alec Woodard tied things up with a free throw by Anthony Bittar giving the Lions a 10-9 lead with just less than 12 minutes left in the first half. That would be SLU’s final lead of the night as the Jaguars hit a three-pointer on their ensuing possession, starting a 13-0 Southern run to go up 22-10 with seven minutes to go before halftime.

An Avery Wilson layup only slowed the Southern run as the Jaguars scored the next nine after to extend the run to 22-2 and take a 31-12 lead with less than two minutes to halftime. Southern took a 36-16 lead into the halftime locker room.

Southeastern got the start it wanted to the second half. After the teams traded buckets to start the period, a three-pointer by Nick Caldwell started a 12-5 Lions run which Roger McFarlane finished with a three-pointer of his own to cut the deficit down to 13 points at 43-30 with 13:15 left in the game.

The two teams traded buckets again with another shot in the paint from Rowbury making the score 45-32 Southern with 12:30 remaining. But SLU went cold again, allowing the Jaguars to go on a 14-2 run to open up a 25-point advantage at 59-34 with 5:45 left in the contest. Caldwell scored the next five points to cut the deficit down to 20 with less than five minutes left, but Southeastern got no closer the rest of the way.

Caldwell started to warm up late, hitting four of his seven shots overall and two of his three attempts from deep, finishing with 14 points and seven rebounds. Rowbury was the catalyst early for the Lions, threatening a double-double for a good portion of the contest but ultimately finishing with eight points and nine rebounds while also collecting two blocks, an assist, and a steal.

It was a tough evening all around for Southeastern, hitting just 25% of its shots in the first half and 36.4% in the second half to finish the game at a 30.4% clip in the contest, 14-of-46. It was even tougher from deep, missing all nine three-point attempts in the first half and going three-of-nine in the second half to finish at 16.7% in the contest. The Lions were also tagged with 22 turnovers as a team.

Southern shot 41.9% in the first half and 51.9% in the second half to finish the game hitting at a 46.6% clip. The Jaguars weren’t any better above the arc, hitting just four of their 21 attempts from three-point range for a 19% success rate. Southern also took better care of the ball, surrendering nine turnovers during the contest.

The Lions wrap up the Louisiana portion of the road trip on Tuesday as they head up to Ruston for a date with Louisiana Tech. Tip-off of Tuesday’s contest against the Bulldogs (8-2) is set for 6:00 p.m. in the Thomas Assembly Center. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ while a radio broadcast will also be available on 90.9 FM The Lion in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area and worldwide at LionSports.net/ListenLive or LionUpRadio.org. The audio stream can also be found on the smart device on the Lions Gameday Experience app, the TuneIn Radio app, or the MyTuner Radio app. Live stats for Tuesday’s game will also be available.

HARDWOOD CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the basketball program are encouraged to join the Hardwood Club. Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letterwinners. All membership fees and donations to Hardwood Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern basketball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Basketball, follow @LionUpMBB and @DavidKieferSLU on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.

TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern is implementing mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.