BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY | HIGHLIGHTS | REPLAY | BRACKET | TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
KATY, Texas – Having not tasted the postseason in years, the University of New Orleans Privateers made sure their initial trip to the Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament would not be brief.
Kevin Brown scored 15 of his game-high 24 points in the second half as seventh-seeded New Orleans outlasted sixth-seed Nicholls State 82-73 at Merrell Center Wednesday night, earning the Privateers a third opportunity against three-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Brown scored the Privateers’ (11-17) first six points of the second half before leaving briefly with a foot injury, but returned to deliver a trio of 3-pointers that helped keep the Colonels (10-19) at bay.
“I felt a little pain in my foot, but it was my job as a senior to keep those guys going,” said Brown, who played with Louisiana-Lafayette in last year’s NCAA Tournament before transferring to New Orleans. “They look upon me, and the opportunity came to make some big shots, and I made them. They found me, and they expect me to knock those shots down.”
New Orleans also got a huge contribution from Travin Thibodeaux, who scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds. The freshman, who came into the game averaging just 3.0 points per game, showed his potential as his teammates found him for a series of dunks that helped spark the team’s energy.
“The guys were very unselfish,” said Privateers coach Mark Slessinger. “They found him in the places he needed to be, and they executed across the board.”
Nicholls, which had relied on its inside game as a strength for most of the season, found itself overmatched by the effort of New Orleans. The Privateers outscored the Colonels by a whopping 45-22 inside the paint, which also included 12 second chance points.
The Colonels didn’t help their cause by committing 21 turnovers, which the Privateers converted into 24 points.
“We left some points out there,” said Nicholls coach J.P. Piper. “I thought turnovers killed us.”
Despite the miscues, the Colonels took a 42-39 lead into intermission on the strength of a blistering 80 percent rate from beyond the arc, as Nicholls connected on eight of their 10 attempts. While not as prolific in the second half (40 percent), they were able to stay in the game with timely treys.
The Colonels never led in the second half, yet never trailed by more than six, a deficit they finally broke when T.J. Carpenter scored with 2:30 remaining to tie the game at 69-69. The deadlock lasted all of 12 seconds, as Nate Frye’s layup gave the Privateers the lead for good.
Nicholls had two opportunities to tie the game, but missed two of four free throws. The Privateers then put the game away by connecting on nine of their 12 attempts from the line in the final 93 seconds.
Amin Torres led the Colonels with 17 points, while JaMarkus Horace added 16 off the bench. Sam McBeath had 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Frye had 14 points for New Orleans, while Tevin Broyles had 13.
New Orleans lost both regular season meetings to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, falling 71-67 at home on January 24 and suffered a 55-53 setback on February 16.
POSTGAME QUOTES
New Orleans
Head Coach Mark Slessinger
Opening statement…
“I thought it was an incredibly competitive game. I think any time you go back in the history of New Orleans basketball and we match up with Nicholls, it’s an incredible game each and every time we play. There’s never been a blow out that I can remember and looking back in the history, today was no different. I’m very, very proud of our team. I’m proud of our execution. I’m proud of the way we took care of the basketball down the stretch. We made some adjustments. They played us very well the first two times and made some adjustments and executed them. We have a young team that has been right on the edge all year of winning eight or nine league games that we just didn’t close out and were a couple possession short. It’s exciting for them as student-athletes and our program moving forward.”
On Nicholls’ 3-point shooting…
“We knew that we were going to give up 3-point shots and give up points in the paint and points inside. We chose to take the lane and give up the outside a little bit. Over the course of the game, it was incredible to see the guys’ belief in our staff and belief in the preparation that our staff put them through. A lot of credit goes to my staff in preparing these guys.”
Freshman Forward Travin Thibodeaux
On his performance…
“I just wanted to play hard for my two seniors and the rest of my teammates. They always encourage me to go up with the ball and dunk it. I had to finish for those guys.”
Senior Guard Kevin Brown
On his injury during the game…
“I felt a little pain in my foot, but I felt it was my job as a senior to keep those guys going. They look upon me and the opportunity came for me to make some big shots and I made them. They found me and they expect me to knock those shots down. They encourage me to keep shooting and the get on me when I don’t shoot. I’m just blessed to have the opportunity to do this.”
Nicholls
Head Coach J.P. Piper
Opening statement…
“We didn’t get off to a good start in the first half. The guys that you sitting here with me (Sam McBeath, T.J. Carpenter, Ja’Dante’ Frye) kind of led us all year long. Not for a lack of effort, they struggled in the first half. They didn’t produce the way they normally do.”
On the turning the ball over and getting beat inside…
“I thought turnovers killed us, and the points in the paint. All season long we’ve been the team that wins that battle, and they doubled us in the paint which us uncharacteristic for us.”
When he felt it was slipping away…
“I really didn’t think we were in jeopardy of losing until we had that turnover late. I think it was a two-point game or three-point game. Torres tried to get it to T.J. and fired with a little too much heat on it and it went through T.J.’s hands out of bounds.”
On the future…
“I started coaching for next year in the postgame talk just now. We don’t have any seniors. I don’t want to make any excuses or take anything away from UNO, but we have six guys that are on scholarship that weren’t in uniform tonight.”
Junior Forward Sam McBeath
On Nicholls’ the defense…
“It was missed rotations missed plays, plays that we are taught to make that we normally make. For some reason, tonight, we couldn’t make them. It felt like we were a step behind.”
Sophomore Guard Ja’Dante’ Frye
On the team’s experience…
“I don’t feel like our lack of experience had a role in it. All season we felt it was hard to win because we had a young team, but tonight I don’t feel that our inexperience caused us to lose.”
Junior Guard T.J. Carpenter
On playing UNO for the third time…
“I don’t feel like they did anything different. It’s real hard trying to beat a team for a third straight time in a season, but like coach said we did a lot of things that were uncharacteristic for us, so I just feel like we beat ourselves really out there.”