Three Lions score career highs in crushing of Crusaders

HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men’s basketball saw Roscoe Eastmond, Christian Agnew, and Donte Houston all compile career highs in points as the Lions opened up a big first half lead over William Carey and never looked back in a dominant 96-62 win over the Crusaders Saturday afternoon at the University Center.

In a bit of a slow start for the Lions, Southeastern actually found itself trailing 6-2 in the game’s opening minutes. However, a three-pointer by Houston started an 11-0 SLU run which gave the Lions the lead for good, a run that Matthew Strange capped with his own three-pointer which made the score 13-6 SLU with less than 15:30 left in the first half.

Leading 19-17 with less than 11 minutes remaining before halftime, Agnew beat the Crusaders down the court on an inbounds play for a fastbreak lay-up, kicking off a half-ending 32-9 run to give SLU its largest lead of the first half right as the half ended as Houston hit a pair of free throws and the defense didn’t allow the Crusaders to get a shot off before the buzzer to send the two teams to the locker room with Southeastern leading 51-26.

With the Lions up 74-52 with eight minutes left in the contest, Nick Caldwell hit a pair of free throws sent SLU on a 20-7 run to give Southeastern its largest lead of the contest as Jake Berner found Alec Woodard under the bucket for an easy lay-up and a 96-69 lead in the game’s closing seconds before a Crusader three-pointer capped the game’s scoring and SLU ran out the rest of the clock.

Eastmond, in his second season in the green and gold, put up the most points in his time at SLU, scoring a game-high 20 points on eight made field goals, four of which came from above the three-point arc. He also had three rebounds and three assists. Agnew, playing in his sixth game since transferring to Southeastern for the start of the season, scored a season-high 19 points on four made buckets, three from above the three-point arc, and made eight of his nine free throw attempts. He was also credited with five assists, three rebounds, and a steal. Houston, playing in his seventh game since transferring to SLU this offseason, scored a season-high 15 points on five made field goals, including a three-pointer, and four-of-six at the stripe. He also had seven rebounds, three blocks, an assist, and a steal. Roger McFarlane had a team-high eight rebounds to go with seven points, three assists, and three steals. Brody Rowbury also filled up the stat sheet with nine points, four rebounds, two blocked shots, an assist, and a steal.

Southeastern shot exactly 50% from the field, hitting 33 of their 66 shot attempts in the contest, though just 38.7% from above the arc as SLU hit on 12 of 31 three-point attempts. The Lions crashed the glass well in the win, outrebounding William Carey 43 to 29 overall and 16 to 11 on the offensive side. Southeastern also forced Carey into 24 turnovers compared to just 14 SLU miscues. William Carey shot 38.9% in the game and 46.4% from three-point range in the contest.

The Lions (4-3) head back on the road for two straight in the state of Ohio. They open up their Ohio road trip on Wednesday night in Cincinnati against Xavier of Ohio. Tip-off of Wednesday’s contest against the Musketeers (4-2) is set for 8:30 P.M. EST/7:30 P.M. CST in the Cintas Center and will be televised on FS1.

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.