HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team got a career night from
Brody Rowbury, who got his second career 20-point scoring game as a Lion, but a cold stretch at the end proved fatal in a 72-69 loss to the Northwestern State Demons Monday night at the University Center.
Despite the loss to the Demons (13-15, 10-8 SLC), Southeastern (18-11, 12-6 SLC) remains in solid position to earn at least one bye in the 2025 Southland Conference Basketball Championships. Monday saw Lamar (18-11, 13-5 SLC) fall, keeping the Lions within one game of the two seed and a double-bye while a loss by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (17-13, 10-8 SLC) put the Lions just one win away clinching a top-four seed and a single bye.
Sam Hines, Jr. led the Lions in the contest, going eight of 14 from the field, including his lone three-point attempt, to finish with 22 points. He also grabbed six rebounds, had two steals, and blocked a shot.
Rowbury's 20 points matched his career high, which he accomplished at Incarnate Word last March. He hit six of his nine shot attempt, including one of his two three-point attempts, and made all seven of his shots from the free throw line. He also secured six rebounds, dished out two assists, blocked a shot, and came up with a steal.
Jeremy Elyzee ended the night with 16 points, going four-of-10 from the field and seven-of-eight at the stripe. He grabbed five boards, had a season-high four steals, dished out an assist, and blocked a shot.
The Lions ended the contest hitting 42.3 percent from the field, hitting 22 of 52 shot attempts. SLU also took advantage of free throw opportunities, hitting 21 of their 25 attempts at the charity stripe, 84 percent. Three-point shooting was off as Southeastern connected on four of 20 from beyond the arc, 20 percent.
Northwestern State scored on more than half of their shot attempts in both halves, finishing the game connecting at a 51.1 percent clip, 24-of-47. The Demons also found the stroke from three late, hitting seven of their 16 three-point attempts to finish at 43.8 percent from deep. NSU was also good on 17 of their 19 free throw attempts, hitting at an 89.5 percent clip from the charity stripe.
After some early back-and-forth, it was Northwestern State that started to open a bit of a gap early. Leading 16-15, the Demons scored five-straight points to take a six-point lead at 21-15 with 7:45 left in the opening half.
That's where Southeastern went on its best run of the night, as Elyzee scored on a lay-up to kick off a run of 11-straight Lion points. Elyzee scored six-straight to tie the game before Hines, Jr. hit a three and a fastbreak dunk off of a Rowbury steal to give SLU the lead back at 26-21 with 5:10 left in the period.
After a Demon three-pointer, Rowbury hit a pair at the free throw line to start a run of eight-straight Southeastern points. Elyzee hit a couple free throws, Rowbury scored on a lay-up, and another transition dunk off a turnover by Hines, Jr. capped the 19-3 Lion run as Southeastern took its largest lead of the half at 10 points, 34-24, with just less than two minutes left before halftime.
NSU got a bit of momentum heading into the second half, outscoring the Lions 8-3 over the remainder of the period and SLU took a 37-32 lead into the halftime locker room.
The Lions seemed ready to take control of the game again right out of the break as Hines, Jr. put back in a missed shot and
Jaiden Lawrence hit a three to reestablish the 10-point lead at 42-32 just 1:15 into the second half.
A NSU lay-up was followed by Rowbury scoring while being fouled and completing the old-fashioned three-point play, giving the Lions their largest lead of the contest at 11 points, 45-34, with 17:20 left. Rowbury would answer a Demon basket with one of his own to make it an 11-point lead again at 47-36 with 15 minutes to go in the contest.
But the Demons quickly got back into the contest, going on a 13-3 run to cut the Lion lead back down to one point, 50-49, with just less than 11 minutes left in the contest. Southeastern battled to stay in front over the next couple minutes, but NSU eventually tied the score at 54-54 and then retook the lead for the first time since just less than seven minutes left in the first half as a three-pointer gave the Demons a 57-56 lead with 8:45 to go in the game.
Rowbury sank a pair of free throws with 6:30 left to put the Lions back in front at 62-61, but that would be Southeastern's final lead of the contest as the Demons answered with a three-pointer on their ensuing possession and would not give up the lead for the remainder of the contest.
Trailing 68-67 with a minute left, the Lions got the miss they needed as a Demon three-point shot kicked hard off the heel of the rim, but the long rebound was tracked down by NSU. The Demons took advantage of one of the rare second chance opportunities they had on the evening by scoring to get the lead back up to three with 30 seconds remaining. SLU's attempt to tie missed and the Demons hit a pair of free throws to put the game out of reach with just seconds remaining. Hines, Jr. hit a baseline jumper with 1.4 seconds left, not leaving enough time for a potential comeback.
Southeastern closed out the home portion of its schedule with an 8-4 record inside the friendly confines of the University Center in 2024-25. The Lions now head out on the road for the final two games of the regular season with a double-bye in the SLC Tournament still well within their grasp.
SLU starts the final trip of the season on Saturday in Corpus Christi, looking to earn a season split with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a battle of two teams fighting to earn at least a single bye in the SLC Tournament. Tip-off of Saturday's game against the Islanders is set for 4:30 p.m. in the American Bank Center and the game will be broadcast 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.
