LAKE CHARLES, La. – Roscoe Eastmond broke the single season assists record, but it came as the Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team's season came to a close, falling to the New Orleans Privateers 78-66 Sunday evening in the first round of the 2024 Jersey Mike's Southland Conference Basketball Championships presented by Explore Louisiana at the Legacy Center on the campus of McNeese State University.
The game started slow for Southeastern (15-17), the tournament's five-seed, as New Orleans (10-22), the tournament's eight-seed, jumped out to an early 7-0 lead less than 90 seconds into the contest. A Lions timeout seemed to get the ship righted for SLU as
Brody Rowbury's hook shot on the possession out of the timeout not only got Southeastern on the board, but started a 13-0 Lions run. Even after the Privateers ended their scoreless streak, SLU continued to expand the run, stretching it out to an 18-2 Lions push as a
Kam Burton three-pointer put Southeastern up 18-9. UNO responded with a three-pointer on its next possession but, two possessions later,
Kam Burton drained a three-pointer while being fouled and hit the ensuing free throw to complete a four-point play and give the Lions their largest lead of the game at 22-12 with 11:10 to go before halftime.
However, the Privateers quickly answered and started to take back the game's momentum, scoring the next seven points before
Nick Caldwell converted an and-one opportunity to push the lead back out to six points at 25-19 with 10:10 to go in the period. But that only slowed the run UNO was on as the Privateers went on to score the next 11 points to make it an 18-3 push to take back the lead at 30-25 with 5:40 left in the half. A Caldwell free throw and a jumper by
Roger McFarlane pushed the deficit down to two at 30-28 with 4:30 left, but the Privateers scored the next four points to push their advantage back out to six points, a lead UNO would maintain to the break at 39-33.
Much like Thursday's regular season finale against Nicholls, the start to the second half proved to be too costly to overcome. UNO scored the first bucket of the period to raise its lead up to eight points, and then Rowbury got to the free throw line, made the first but missed the second. The ball found its way back to Rowbury's hands for the offensive rebound, and he eventually scored for a three-point possession to make it a five-point game at 41-36. But that's where things got away from the Lions as the Privateers scored the next 13 points to take their largest lead of the contest at 54-36 with 14:45 left in the contest. A jumper by McFarlane fell in to start a run of seven-straight Lions points as Burton was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws off of it to cut the deficit down to 11 at 54-43 with 13:10 left.
The two teams traded buckets with a
Dylan Canoville layup making it 56-45 with 10:30 to go, but New Orleans extended its advantage back out by scoring seven of the next nine points to get the lead back up to 16 points at 63-47 with 7:20 left. A Rowbury layup on SLU's next possession started Southeastern's final push to get back in the game as the Lions went on a 10-2 run as McFarlane's three as the clock ticked under five minutes remaining cut the deficit back to single digits at 65-57. But SLU got no closer as the Privateers scored the next six points to get the advantage back up to 14 points and answered all Southeastern buckets for the remainder of the contest.
McFarlane led the Lions on the night, hitting eight of his 14 shot attempts, including two-of-five from three, to finish with 18 points. He also grabbed eight rebounds and had an assist. Rowbury hit four of his nine shot attempts in the contest and was five-of-six at the free throw line to end the game with 13 points and seven rebounds to go with a block. Both Caldwell and Burton finished the game with 10 points as Caldwell hit three of his eight shots and was four-of-five from the free throw line to go with give rebounds, two assists, and a steal while Burton was two-of-five from the field, two-of-four from three, and hit all four of his free throw attempts to go with three rebounds and a steal.
Eastmond finished the night with eight assists, finishing his 2023-24 campaign with 209 assists, breaking the previous SLU single season assists record of 207 held by Marlain Veal from the 2017-18 season.
Southeastern ended the game shooting 38.6% from the field and 33.3% on attempts from beyond the arc. New Orleans ended the game hitting at a 42.1% clip and 28% from three on the evening. This was the fourth-straight season UNO and SLU have met in the SLC Tournament with the Privateers picking up its third win over the Lions in that span.
The Lions' season ends with a 15-17 overall record after finishing 10-8 in Southland play.
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.
