Privateers respond with best effort yet in 89-68 win over Southeastern

NEW ORLEANS – After a 72-hour double whammy of a last-second loss and a key season-ending injury, you would have understood if the University of New Orleans men’s basketball season went south.

Mark Slessinger and his players wouldn’t let that happen, and the result was easily the Privateers’ best effort of the season Wednesday night – a convincing home 89-68 victory over Southeastern Louisiana to move into sole possession of third place in the Southland Conference.

Afterwards, though, Slessinger wouldn’t talk about the 40 minutes of basketball collectively.

“The couple of best stretches,” Slessinger said of Wednesday’s game. “I think we’ve had some good stretches in other games.”

Considering where this team was just eight days ago, it’s impressive.

Two Saturdays ago, the Privateers had a big crowd for Homecoming and Senior Day against Nicholls, and a three-pointer with less than five seconds remaining by the Colonels provided a 64-63 punch to the gut for UNO – its only home conference loss of the season.

Without a midweek game last week, Slessinger gave his players off until Tuesday. In the midst of that practice, the team’s leading scorer, Ezekiel Charles, went down with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon.

UNO (15-10) pulled away in the second half last Saturday to defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 68-58, setting the stage for Wednesday’s matchup against a Southeastern team that had rebounded from an 0-3 start in conference play to win nine of its last 10 games.

Jorge Rosa – who has started the last two games since Charles’ season-ending injury – hit a pair of three-pointers on the first two possessions and the Privateers would never trail.

Rosa, the lone remaining significant contributor from UNO’s 2017 conference champions, was 6-of-9 from three-point range. Bryson Robinson was 5-of-7 from deep. All told, the Privateers hit 14 of 23 three-pointers on the night, only fractionally better than the 15 of 25 shots they hit from inside the arc.

“Jorge had to fill in (Charles’) shoes and he did an admirable job,” Slessinger said.

While Charles is out, the Privateers may have picked up a late-season signee of sorts in Lamont Berzat, the New Orleans native who started the first six games at point guard but had not played since Dec. 20 with a foot injury.

Berzat returned Wednesday night and played five minutes against Southeastern.

The Privateers have four regular-season games left, but only one is at home – next Wednesday against league leader Sam Houston State. UNO heads to McNeese Saturday, Nicholls next Saturday and returns the trip to Southeastern in two weeks.

Going 4-for-4 with a little help could put UNO in position to get a double bye in the Southland Conference Tournament next month in Katy, Texas. Two wins put Slessinger’s team in good position to get a bye to the quarterfinals whiile three now guarantee it.

January and February are all about getting the best position for the conference tournament in March. For the Privateers, a second tournament title and NCAA berth in three years are at stake.

Standing almost directly under the banners those before him have earned, Slessinger understands the history and task.

“We’ve got to work harder tomorrow than we did today,” he said. “I know these banners are up there. They’re awfully big ghosts. I know Tim Floyd’s ghost is behind me, Ron Greene’s ghost is behind me, Benny Dees’ ghost is behind me.”

No one is likely calling Ghost Hunters International to Lakefront Arena anytime soon, but this is clearly the closest the Privateers have been to restoring the sustained success of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

More efforts like Wednesday could get Slessinger’s team even closer.