FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team matched Colorado State shot for shot in their match-up, but a 13-point advantage at the free throw line with 17 more attempts from the stripe for the Rams proved too much to overcome in the Lions 80-69 loss Friday night at the Moby Arena.
SLU found itself slow to start, falling behind 23-10, but a
Donte Houston three-pointer sent the Lions on a 10-2 run to cut that deficit down to just 25-20 on a
Christian Agnew bucket with just more than eight minutes left in the first half. The Lions continued to claw closer, closing it to just one point with just more than three minutes left before halftime as
Mehdi Pissis drained a three-pointer to make it 35-34 CSU. Mehdi closed out the scoring in the half with another three ball with 35 seconds left to make the score 42-40 Rams at the break.
Just more than three minutes into the second half, the Lions finally tied things up for the first time since 2-2 as
Boogie Anderson got to the rim and scored to knot up the score at 46-46. However, the Lions would not be able to jump out in front, instead the Rams opened up a bit of a lead again, getting the advantage out to nine points at 60-51 with 10 minutes left in the game.
But on SLU's ensuing possession,
Sami Pissis hit a three-pointer while being fouled to give the Lions some momentum. He would convert the free throw to complete the four-point play and cut the deficit to five. Agnew made a three-point game on Southeastern's next possession by hitting a pair of free throws. Agnew answered a pair of Colorado State free throws with a three-pointer to make it a two-point game at 62-60 with less than 8:45 left in the contest. Roughly 90 seconds later, Agnew tied the score with a jumper to make it 62-62. CSU scored the next four before
Sami Pissis dialed up another three-ball to cut the deficit back down to one at 66-65 with 5:30 left.
From that point, it was all Rams down the stretch as CSU scored the next six to open the score and start a game-ending 14-4 run to pull away.
In his SLU debut, Agnew led the Lions in scoring with 14 points, which included hitting two three-pointers, and grabbed four rebounds. Anderson hit a team high six shots on his way to 12 points while dishing out a team-high seven assists.
Mehdi Pissis hit his first four shots from the field, all from above the three-point arc, to finish with 12 points as well.
SLU hit 12 three-pointers in the contest as a team, hitting 44.4% of their shots from deep, while shooting 42.4% from the field overall. While hitting just one less field goal overall than the Rams, 26-25, SLU hit four more three-pointers than CSU in the game. The deciding factor was the charity stripe where the Rams were 20-of-27 at the free throw line while the Lions made seven free throws on just 10 attempts.
There's no time for the Lions (1-1) to lament on their first loss of the season as they head to Laramie for a date with Wyoming on Sunday. Tip-off of Sunday's game against the Cowboys (2-0) is set for 2:00 P.M. MST, 3:00 P.M. CST at the Arena-Auditorium.
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.
