CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team found a hot hand late in
Matthew Strange, who was nearly perfect, but by then it wasn't enough to overcome a slow start against a hot-shooting Xavier team in the Lions' 95-63 loss to the Musketeers Wednesday night at the Cintas Center.
Southeastern never led as Xavier scored the game's first seven points before a
Roscoe Eastmond jumper got the Lions on the board. The Musketeers added four more points to its total before
Alec Woodard hit a free throw to make it 11-3. However, that was followed by a 10-point Xavier rush to blow the game open early at 21-3.
While the game was not in doubt late, the Lions continued to show their propensity of finishing strong, closing the game on a 13-3 run, sparked by the late shooting of Strange, to cut the deficit down at the final buzzer. That followed a 9-2 run to end the first half, which had cut the deficit down some right before the half.
Strange came off the bench and hit four of his five shot attempts in the contest, all from behind the three-point arc, and hit four of five from the free throw line for a season-best 16 points to go with a pair of assists.
Boogie Anderson hit seven of 13 from the field and finished with 15 points to go with four steals, two rebounds, and two assists. Eastmond ended the game with 11 points as he connected on four shots in seven attempts while dropping in both of three-point attempts.
Brody Rowbury grabbed a team-high seven rebounds while
Donte Houston dished out three assists to lead the Lions.
SLU dug itself an early hole, shooting just 24.1% in the first half, but recovered to hit 48.3% in the second half to finish the game at 36.2%. After missing all their three-point attempts in the first half, Southeastern hit seven of their 12 attempts from long range in the last 20 minutes.
Xavier used its advantage inside to shoot at or above 50% in both halves and score more than half of their points in the contest in the lane. The advantage inside was exacerbated on the defensive side as well, where the Musketeers were credited with eight shot blocks. On the boards, Xavier outrebounded the Southeastern by 19, doubled up the Lions in offensive rebounds, 12-6, which gave Xavier an 11-point advantage in second chance points.
The Lions (4-4) remain in Ohio for a Saturday contest with Dayton. Tip-off of the Saturday afternoon affair with the Flyers (4-4) is set for 2:00 P.M. EST/1:00 P.M. CST at the UD Arena and will be live streamed on ESPN+.
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.
