For the second time in three days, Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday topped UNO to complete a season sweep.
The Southland Conference-leading Lions — picked fourth in the league’s preseason men's hoops poll after losing their top four scorers from a year ago — erased a 17-8 deficit with an 18-2 run on their way to an 80-64 victory on Saturday at Lakefront Arena.
The matchup of two teams heading in opposite directions played out as recent form suggested, including Southeastern's 92-87 victory over UNO in Hammond on Thursday.
Southeastern (13-9, 7-2 Southland) won for the seventh time in its past eight games, maintaining a one-game advantage on Northwestern State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the midway point of the conference schedule.
“Before the season started, I knew we had a chance to be better than last year,” said fourth-year Southeastern coach David Kiefer, who guided the Lions to a tie for second with the Privateers and an appearance in the Southland tournament championship game last season. “We have more size and we’re more physical. Last year we really relied on the 3-ball. If we didn’t make shots, we struggled to win. This year we can score inside-out, and defensively we’re much better.”
UNO (6-14, 3-6) dropped its fifth in a row while falling to eighth in the league standings. The Privateers shot 57.1% from the floor in the first half and hit 5 of 6 3-pointers but still trailed by double digits because they committed 15 turnovers that led to 17 points.
They finished with 24 miscues and have averaged nearly 19 turnovers during their skid. The seven players who were on the floor for at least five minutes all had at least two turnovers.
“We cannot turn the ball over at this rate,” UNO coach Mark Slessinger said. “It’s just the simple math of it. We keep putting ourselves in these holes. We missed 15 opportunities to shoot, so what could have been a lead instead of a 13-point deficit. We’ve got to get it cleaned up in order for us to turn the corner.”
Southeastern guard Nick Caldwell continued his recent hot stretch with a team-high 21 points after pouring in a season-high 28 on Thursday. The four other starters joined him in double figures.
That was nothing new for a team with 11 players averaging between 5.9 and 12.8 points.
“Our depth is our best thing from top to bottom,” Kiefer said. “All our guys are so close in talent level.”
UNO started the second half just like the first half, going on a 9-2 run to pull within 46-40 and force a Southeastern timeout. The Lions then held the Privateers scoreless for more than seven minutes while scoring 17 consecutive points, including a dunk and a three-point play off of back-to-back turnovers as they went ahead 63-40 with 10:30 left.
Jordan Johnson scored 10 of UNO’s first 12 points and paced the Privateers with 26 on 9-of-15 shooting, but he had very little help. Forward Tyson Jackson fought through foul trouble — a recurring recent issue— to hit 6 of 8 shots. No one else had more than six points as Slessinger could not find a lineup that worked.
“We’re all at a boiling point,” Slessinger said. “We’ve got to be able to be tough enough to fight through to the next play and get out of the rut we’re in. The only way to get out of that rut is to work your way out of it.”
The Lions are finding the road awfully smooth heading into home games against Incarnate Word and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi this week.
“We need to keep getting better every day,” Kiefer said. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s great to start 7-2, but if we go 0-9 the rest of the way it means nothing. We don’t want to look too far into the future.”