HOUSTON, Texas – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team found its rhythm on both sides of the ball in the second half, outscoring Houston Christian 40-23 over the final 17 minutes to turn an eight-point deficit into a 69-60 win over the Huskies Monday night at Sharp Gymnasium.
With the win, the Lions (16-9, 10-4 SLC) avenged their lone loss in their last 11 contests, which came at the hands of the Huskies (11-14, 8-6 SLC) two weeks ago in the University Center.
Jakevion Buckley, who was named the Southland Conference's Player of the Week on Monday, picked up right where he left off from SLU's last game, hitting seven of his 10 shot attempts and 11 of his 13 free throw attempts for 25 points, his second-straight game and third this season scoring at least 25 points. He also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out an assist, and had a steal.
Sam Hines, Jr. worked his way to 12 points with four rebounds, two blocks, two steals, and two assists.
Brody Rowbury and
Jeremy Elyzee both scored 11 points with Rowbury grabbing eight rebounds while Elyzee secured six boards, came up with two steals, and had an assist. Rowbury was four-of-eight from the field while Elyzee made five of his seven shot attempts on the night.
After hitting just 30.7 percent in the first half, Southeastern's offense came alive in the second half, hitting 51.7 percent in the last 20 minutes to end the game hitting 41.8 percent overall. The Lions also continued to be consistent at the free throw line, hitting 21 of their 26 attempts, 80.8 percent, at the charity stripe. That supplemented another tough night from three-point range where SLU made two deep balls on the evening. SLU also controlled the glass, grabbing 13 more rebounds than the Huskies, 41-28, and did not allow HCU to score any second chance points in the game.
After hitting 11 three-point field goals at a 50 percent clip in its win in Hammond two weeks ago, HCU made seven three-pointers on just 28 percent from deep in Monday's contest. The Huskies finished the game hitting 43.1 percent overall from the field and really struggled from the charity stripe, hitting just nine of their 16 free throw attempts, 56.3 percent.
Southeastern scored the game's first five points as Hines, Jr. hit a pair of free throws and then Elyzee scored while being fouled, converting the old school three-point play to make it 5-0 Lions. While the Lions led for the majority of the period, that would be SLU's largest lead of it, and would be matched twice more.
Southeastern's final five-point lead of the first half came with 6:15 left before the break as
Jaiden Lawrence hit a three-pointer, putting SLU up 23-18. The Huskies ended the half on an 11-4 run to reclaim the lead with just seconds left in it as HCU took a two-point, 29-27, lead into the locker room.
The HCU run continued out of the break as the Huskies scored eight of the first 10 second half points to take their largest lead of the game at eight points, 37-29, with 17:30 left in the contest.
That's where the Lions started to get in gear with Buckley hitting a baseline fadeaway jumper, kicking off a 15-2 Southeastern run as Buckley got to the rim and scored while being fouled. He would hit the ensuing free throw, putting the Lions up 44-39 with 12:30 remaining.
Over the next 6:30 of game time, there would be eight lead changes and a pair of ties. With the score tied at 56-56 and 5:30 to go, Buckley scored on a lay-up for the game's final lead change as the Lions scored the next five points to go up 61-56 with four minutes to go on a made free throw by Rowbury.
A HCU jumper with 3:30 left made it a one possession game again at 61-58, but the Lions defense clamped down as Southeastern outscored the Huskies 8-2 over the final 2:45 to close out the win.
With the quick Texas road trip now complete with a pair of wins, SLU comes back home for four-straight in Hammond, America. The homestand starts on Saturday with the Lions looking to earn a season split with Nicholls. Tip-off of Saturday's contest against the Colonels (15-10, 9-5 SLC) is set for 3:30 p.m., or about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the women's game, in the University Center and it will be televised on ESPN+. Live stats will also be available on LionSports.net.
Saturday will also be Alumni Day in the University Center as we welcome back and honor all SLU men's basketball alumni.
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.
