ABILENE, Texas – Southeastern Louisiana will look to get off to its best start in Southland Conference play in 13 seasons when the Lions travel to Abilene Christian Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip-off in Moody Coliseum.
The game between the Lions (8-7, 2-0 Southland) and Wildcats (10-6, 2-1 Southland) can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9), online at www.LionSports.net/listenlive and via the TuneIn Radio app. Live stats, via Abilene Christian, will be accessible on the Southeastern men's basketball schedule page at www.LionSports.net.
Southeastern is 2-0 in conference play for the second straight season, the first time the Lions have accomplished that feat since the 2004-05 and '05-06 seasons. Southeastern has not won three straight to start league play since 2004-05.
Southeastern will be playing for the first time since taking a 73-69 win at Central Arkansas this past Sunday. Junior forward
Moses Greenwood had a season-high 12 rebounds to go with 12 points while senior guard
Eddy Polanco led the Lions with 14 points. Senior forward
Jordan Capps contributed 13 points and seven rebounds while junior guard
Marlain Veal had 10 points and five assists. Senior guard
Jabbar Singleton tied a career high with three steals. Senior forward
James Currington also had seven rebounds as Southeastern held a 45-43 advantage while shooting 41.3 percent from the field.
Abilene Christian rallied from a pair of 13-point second-half deficits to win its second straight, 79-74, over McNeese on Wednesday. Graduate transfer guard Tevin Foster led all scorers with 17, while junior guard Jaren Lewis finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Junior guard Jaylen Franklin matched his career-high of 10 rebounds to go along with eight rebounds and seven assists. Junior forward Hayden Farquhar scored 12 points off the bench.
NOTES
Southeastern
Southeastern and New Orleans (6-8, 3-0 SLC) are the only undefeated teams remaining in the Southland.
Southeastern is averaging 72.4 points on 43.6 percent shooting overall. The Lions are shooting 34.9 percent on 3-pointers, making 7.6 per game.
Southeastern is allowing 71.9 points per contest on 44.3 percent shooting. Opponents are shooting 33.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Southeastern is averaging 35.7 rebounds and allowing 35.5.
Veal, who earned honorable mention Southland Player of the Week honors for the second straight week on Tuesday, leads the conference in assists per game (5.3). He is tied for 10th in 3-point field goal percentage (.405) and steals (1.8 spg), 11th in assist/turnover ratio (1.5) and 15th in scoring (13.1 ppg).
Veal scored the 900th point of his two-plus-year career with a free throw with 2:09 left in Sunday's game.
Capps is 20th in the Southland with 12.6 points per game. He ranks 11th in field goal percentage (.519). Greenwood is seventh in the league in rebounding (6.7 rpg) and is 14th in field goal percentage (.505) while averaging 8.5 points per game. Capps and Greenwood are tied for 13th with 0.9 blocks per game. Currington is 10th in field goal percentage (.519).
Veal, Capps, Currington (8.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 24 steals), Singleton (6.6 ppg, 36 assists) and senior guard
Joshua Filmore (8.8 ppg, 21 assists) are the projected starters for the Lions.
Southeastern leads the series with the series with Abilene Christian, 6-1, after sweeping the season series in 2016-17. The Lions opened conference play with a 75-53 win at home, then took a 56-50 win in Abilene.
Southeastern is 4-0 at home and 2-1 on the road against Abilene Christian. Lions head coach
Jay Ladner is 5-1 against the Wildcats.
Abilene Christian
Abilene Christian returns four starters and 10 letterwinners from a team that went 13-16 overall and tied for eighth in the Southland at 7-11 in 2016-17.
The Wildcats were the lone team with two players on the preseason all-league team in Franklin and sophomore center Jalone Friday. Friday (13.6 ppg), Lewis (13.4 ppg) and Foster (13.3 ppg) currently rank 12th through 14th in scoring in the league. Lewis is second in field goal percentage (.621) with Franklin sixth (.550).
Franklin (8.6 ppg) is also second in the conference in assists (4.9 apg), fifth in assist/turnover ratio (2.1) and tied for sixth in steals (2.1 spg). Foster is ninth in assist/turnover ratio (1.6), 13th in steals (1.7 spg) and 14th in assists (3.1 apg). Lewis (6.6 rpg) is ninth in rebounding while Friday is third in blocks (1.8 bpg).
Expected to start for Abilene Christian are Friday, Lewis, Foster, Franklin and sophomore guard Payten Ricks (6.5 ppg).
ACU is second in the Southland in shooting 48.5 percent in averaging 77.4 points. The Wildcats are shooting 34.3 percent on 3-pointers and 70.9 percent from the line. Defensively, ACU is allowing 70.8 points on 43.8 percent shooting, 32.1 percent on 3s. The Wildcats are recording 33.6 rebounds while allowing 34.9.
Joe Golding is in his eighth season as head coach at ACU.
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QUOTES:
Southeastern head coach Jay Ladner:
On being just one of two undefeated teams left in conference play:
"I think it goes back to the parity in our league is incredible. We are already, out of 13 teams, down to two that are undefeated. I think that says a lot about, not as much about us being 2-0 or UNO being 3-0, as there being incredible parity in our league. We have to keep things in perspective. We're certainly glad to be 2-0 but we have 16 incredibly rough games ahead of us, beginning with Saturday against a really good Abilene Christian team. I think one through 13, there is not a lot of difference in the teams in our league at all."
On Abilene Christian…
"We have our hands full at Abilene on Saturday. I think we are going to have to play our best game of the season to be successful. They are well-coached, they have everybody back from last year and they have a graduate transfer has given them another dimension. It's going to take a great effort for us to be competitive in that game."
UP NEXT:
Southeastern wraps up a three-game Southland road trip with a visit to Lamar Wednesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Montagne Center in Beaumont, Texas.
