HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team scored the game's first five points and never looked back, getting a season-best scoring day from
Roger McFarlane as the Lions pulled away from Southern in the second half to knock off the Jaguars 80-62 Wednesday night at the University Center.
After forcing a Southern turnover on the game's first possession, a favorable trend started to develop immediately as Southeastern took the lead for good on their opening possession as
Boogie Anderson got to the elbow and drained the mid-range jumper for the game's first two points. SLU's lead hit double digits for the first time as
Brody Rowbury put back his own miss to make it 14-4 Lions less than five minutes into the contest.
SLU maintained the advantage throughout the remainder of the first half, seeing the lead peak with just less than 3:30 left before halftime as a
Matthew Strange three-pointer gave Southeastern a 12-point lead at 39-27. However, back-to-back three-pointers by the Jaguars cut the SLU lead down to six points at 39-33, and when the halftime buzzer sounded, Southern had kept the Lion lead at six points as SLU took a 44-38 lead to the break.
Out of the half, Southern continued its run to get back into the game, scoring the first five points of the period to make it a one-point Southeastern lead at 44-43. However, SLU scored five of the next six points as a
Nick Caldwell bucket put the Lions up 49-44.
After the two teams traded scores over the next few minutes, a lay-up by Rowbury started a run that finally gained Southeastern the separation needed to close out the game as SLU went on a 13-4 run to get the advantage back into double-digits.
Sami Pissis closed out the run with a thunderous dunk off a pass from Rowbury to give the Lions a 67-55 lead with 7:15 left in the contest.
A Jaguar three-pointer on Southern's ensuing possession cut the lead back down to nine, but the Lions put the game away by scoring the next eight points as McFarlane's three-pointer with 3:20 left gave the Lions their largest lead up to that point at 75-58, making the game-sealing run by Southeastern 21-7 over a nearly 10-minute span. A free throw by
Sami Pissis with 32 seconds left accounted for the game's final point while simultaneously giving the Lions their largest lead of the contest.
"I thought we did a great job of sharing the ball tonight," said SLU head men's basketball coach
David Kiefer. "Guys were making the extra pass and hunting the assist. We traded baskets in the first half with them and never really pushed away. The second half was different. I thought our guys really defended and rebounded, and that was the difference in the game."
McFarlane set a new personal best for scoring this season, finishing the game with 20 points, just three shy of his career high. He hit seven of his 13 attempts from the field, including four of five from above the three-point arc. He also had eight rebounds and dished out four assists in the contest. Caldwell had another impactful game, scoring 16 points as he hit seven of his 10 field goal attempts while grabbing seven rebounds to go with a blocked shot and a steal. Anderson continued to fill up the box score as he finished with 15 points, nine assists, three rebounds, and three steals. Rowbury rounded out the top performers with 10 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and a blocked shot.
Both teams shot on the plus side of 45%, with SLU hitting 49.2% while Southern hit 45.1%, but the key was second chance points and points off turnovers. Southeastern grabbed 12 offensive board and turned it into 11 second chance points while the Jaguars got just five offensive rebounds and scored four points off of them. The Lions forced Southern into 17 turnovers and scored 26 points off of those miscues. The Jaguars caused SLU to turn the ball over 14 times, but turned that into just 12 points.
The Lions (6-7) look to take this momentum into their final nonconference game of the season next Fri., Dec. 30
th as SLU heads to Nashville for a date with Vanderbilt. Tip-off of the game against the Commodores (5-6) is set for 6:00 P.M. at Memorial Gymnasium and will be streamed on the SEC Network+.
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.
