HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana sophomore guard Marlain Veal and junior forward James Currington led a sharp shooting effort by the Lions in an 87-70 Southland Conference victory over Central Arkansas in the 2016-17 home finale at the University Center Wednesday night.

    Southeastern (15-14, 8-8 Southland) broke a tie for seventh place in the conference with Central Arkansas (8-21, 7-9 Southland). The Lions also finished 11-3 at home in 2016-17, their most wins in the University Center since the 2011-12 season. Southeastern's 15 wins overall are its most since the 2010-11 team went 15-14.

    Veal was 11-of-16 from the field in tying a career-high with 28 points. Currington went 6-of-7 in scoring a career-high 16 points while tying a career best with 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Junior forward Eddy Polanco added 13 points and sophomore guard Dimi Cook and sophomore forward Moses Greenwood 10 apiece.

    Junior guard Jabbar Singleton with six and Polanco with five also tied their career highs for assists. Veal also had five as Southeastern recorded 22 overall against just 11 turnovers. The Lions also out-rebounded the Bears 37-35.

     "I'm real proud of our team," Southeastern head coach Jay Ladner said of his squad which was coming off a 60-52 loss to Stephen F. Austin on Saturday. "They haven't gotten their spirits down. We've lost a lot of close games and there has not been a lot wrong with our team. Our schedule had gotten just a little bit different. We lost close ones to teams that are leading the league. Certainly we feel like there is a lot of room for improvement for our team, but it was good for us to bounce back, it was good to shoot the ball as well as we did."

    Central Arkansas was led by Jordan Howard with 17 points. Darraja Parnell contributed 13 points and Thatch Unruh 12. Jeff Lowery had a team-high five rebounds.

    Southeastern shot 60 percent (18-of-30) in jumping out to a 46-29 halftime lead. The Lions hit nine of their first 12 shots and 13-of-18 over the first 12 minutes while holding Central Arkansas to 31.4 percent for the half.

    Polanco scored off a Singleton pass to extend the Lions' lead to 56-32 with a 17:24 remaining. UCA pulled to within 69-39 on a Lowery 3 at the 14:39 mark. But Greenwood answered with a jumper and Currington added a layup off a Veal assist to push the lead to 69-43 with 12:17 remaining.

    Cook gave Southeastern a 75-48 lead at the 9:45 mark. But UCA hit five 3-pointers – three by Aaron Weidenaar and one each by Parnell and Unruh – over the next 3:23 to get to within 75-63 with 6:22 left. Mathieu Kamba and Parnell added 3s as the lead dropped to 77-67 with 3:49 remaining.

    But Southeastern would hold the Bears without a field goal the rest of the way. Singleton hit two free throws, Greenwood added a jumper and Veal a layup as the Lions built the lead back to 83-69 with 1:59 left. 

    Senior center Dominic Nelson hit a short jumper to give the Lions a 10-2 lead at the 17:41 mark. UCA got the deficit down to 13-10 as Ethan Lee dunked in a putback with 15:45 remaining.

    A layup by Currington and a Singleton jumper built the lead to seven before Unruh hit a 3 to make it 17-14 with 13 minutes remaining. But Southeastern went on an 18-2 run over the next six minutes. Layups by Greenwood and Veal and a Polanco jumper gave the Lions a 23-14 lead at the 11:29 mark.

    After UCA got its only points during the stretch on a Lowery jumper with 10:54 left. Currington started a 12-0 run for Southeastern with a jumper. Veal went in for a layup, then added a 3 for a 30-16 lead at the 8:57 mark. A Greenwood layup and a Cook free throw made it 35-16 with 6:59 remaining.

    The Bears got back on the board with a Howard 3 with 6:11 left. A Cook layup and Polanco 3 pushed the lead to 40-21 with 4:57 left. Veal then gave the Lions their biggest lead of the half at 43-23 on a 3 with 3:05 remaining. Unruh went in for a layup to cut the deficit to 43-29 with 33 seconds left but Veal knocked down a 3 from the top of the key in the closing seconds to give Southeastern the 17-point halftime lead.

    Southeastern will look for a season sweep of Nicholls when the Lions travel to Thibodaux Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. tip-off. Southeastern took a 72-44 win over the Colonels in Hammond back on Feb. 1.