LSUA men, women roll over SUNO to open basketball season

#2 Generals Break Records in Season Opening Rout of SUNO

Alexandria, La. – The No. 2 ranked LSUA men’s basketball team needed all of four seconds to get their first points of the season on its way to scoring a program record 124 points in the Generals 124-96 win over the SUNO Knights Thursday night at The Fort.

LSUA was on the attack immediately as Phillip Rankin won the opening tip to William Claiborne, who handed it off to JaMichael Brown, and Brown found Rankin cutting backdoor and lobbed it up for a jam to get The Fort rocking just four seconds into the new season.

But the Knights responded well, scoring the next eight points to take an 8-2 lead on a Marcel Daniels bucket. LSUA got it back even as Rankin found a cutting Claiborne for a lay-up with 16:30 left to even the score at 10-10, and then retake the lead at 13-10 on a Chris Vickers three-pointer. But again, SUNO responded with six straight points to take a 16-13 lead on a Dimitri Cook lay-up. But when Vickers nailed another three-ball to tie it, the Knights would not see the lead again.

The Generals quickly built the lead to double-digits as a put-back by Claiborne gave LSUA a 31-21 lead halfway through the first 20 minutes. And then the lead hit the 20 point margin for the first time on a Vickers lay-up to make it 46-26. The lead touched 30 in the first half as a Chris Osten bucket gave the Generals a 61-31 advantage with less than 90 seconds left before the break. LSUA led 64-37 at halftime.

LSUA cruised through most of the second half, answering any run the Knights tried to put together, all while building the lead to its peak at 38 points with just less than seven minutes remaining as Mikkel Norment dialed up long distance and drained a three-pointer to give the Generals a 106-68 lead, never allowing SUNO to threaten at all during the second half.

“It’s always good to get the first win out of the way,” said LSUA head coach Larry Cordaro. “There’s always pressure on the program to come out and play well in the first game at home in eight months. Obviously, we were hot as a firecracker on the offensive end, but then again so was our opponent. SUNO came in and played really hard and were a really well coached team. We’re glad our shots were falling tonight because defensively we have a long way to go. We have a lot of talent but we also have some really tough games upcoming that will test us to see just how far we have to go.”

Six different Generals players scored in double figures in the win, led by Mikkel Normant’s first double-double of his LSUA career with 22 points on seven of 12 shooting, including five made three-pointers in eight attempts and ten assists. Devin Jackson came on strong in his LSUA debut, scoring 21 points on seven of 12 shooting, all from above the arc. Chris Vickers finished the contest with 20 points, hitting eight of 13, including four from long range. Phillip Rankin ended the day with 16 points. William Claiborne put in 13 and Chris Osten rounded out the leading scorers with 11 points. In his first game in a Generals uniform, JaMichael Brown broke the LSUA single game assists record with 12 dimes. The Generals shot 57.7% from the field, including 48.6% from above the three-point arc. The 124 points was the most ever in a single game by the Generals, besting the previous mark of 115 points. For their efforts, SUNO (0-1) shot 52.3% from the field and 43.5% from above the arc.

The Generals (1-0) now head to Fort Worth, Texas to take part in the TXWES Classic, being held by Texas Wesleyan University. In their first game there, #2 LSUA will meet up with the #1 team in the NAIA Preseason Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, The Master’s University. Tip off against the Mustangs is set for 5:00 P.M. on November 1st at the Sid Richardson Center.

Generals Bust Open Early to Open Season with Win

Alexandria, La. – The LSUA women’s basketball team started the 2018-19 season on the positive side of the ledger, busting open a 21 point lead by the end of the first quarter and cruising to a 71-40 win over the Southern University New Orleans Knights Thursday evening at The Fort.

Leading from wire-to-wire, the Generals scored the game’s first seven points as two lay-ups were sandwiched around a Kelsey Thaxton three-pointer to put LSUA up 7-0 just two minutes into the contest. After two straight SUNO buckets, the Generals went on a 16-0 run that took only three minutes to build up a 23-4 lead as Natalie Alaniz got to the bucket with less than 4:00 left in the quarter. Aja Law split a pair of free throws for the quarter’s final point to give the Generals their largest lead of the period at 27-6 when the horn sounded.

The Knights started the second quarter faster, scoring four straight to pull the LSUA lead down to 27-11 before the Generals again went running, this time using a 14-2 run to build up the largest lead of the first half as Brittany Hall’s made free throw gave LSUA a 41-13 lead. The Knights got a pair of free throws to make the score 41-15 when the game reached halftime.

LSUA’s lead hit 30 points for the first time early in the third quarter as a Courtney Dawsey bucket gave the Generals a 47-17 advantage. Law’s put back of a Dawsey miss with seconds left in the quarter tied LSUA’s largest lead of the period at 32 points, 61-29.

35 points would be the peak of LSUA’s lead, which was achieved with less than three minutes remaining in the contest as Tamia Hewitt put in a second chance opportunity for a 71-36 lead and LSUA would coast on to just its second season-opening win in the program’s five year history.

“We came out excited to get the season started and it showed in that first quarter,” said LSUA head coach Bob Austin. “We were in a good rhythm offensively and we were able to keep them from what they wanted to do. Unfortunately, things kind of stagnated there for a while, but we’ll get back to work and try to keep that from happening as we prepare for a tough road game this weekend.”

In her LSUA debut, Courtney Dawsey led the Generals with 12 points, making four of the 12 shots she took from the field and four of her six free throw attempts. Shelanita Starks came off the bench and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. The Generals shot 33.3% from the field as a team in the contest, while holding SUNO (0-1) to just 25.5% shooting.

The Generals (1-0) head to New Orleans on Sunday for a battle with #17 Loyola. Tip off against the Wolf Pack (0-0) is set for 2:00 P.M. at The Den.