NEW ORLEANS – For the first time since 1999 there will a true winner-take-all regular season Championship game on the final day of Southland play as the University of New Orleans men (17-11, 10-3 Southland) travel to Nicholls (20-10, 10-3 Southland) on Saturday afternoon.
The winner of Saturday’s contest will be crowned the 2021-2022 Southland Conference Champions, while the loser will finish second or third in the league depending on Southeastern’s result at Northwestern State. If the Privateers are defeated by the Colonels, they would finish second with Lions loss, or third with a Lions victory.
The top two seeds get a double-bye and would not play in the Southland Tournament until Friday evening, while the third seed would play Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.
Coach Sless’ squad is coming off a come-from-behind victory over HBU on Wednesday evening at Lakefront Arena. Trailing by as many as 17 early in the second half Troy Green and birthday boy Jahmel Myers willed the Privateers back into the contest. Myers’ fast break dunk with five minutes to play tied the contest at 65, and his ensuing layup give the Privateers the lead on the next possession.
With New Orleans up by a single point with under 30 seconds remaining the HBU’s Darius Lee turned the ball over as time expired and the Privateers escaped with a 75-74 victory. Green finished with 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting. Myers finished with a season-high 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Saturday’s game will feature two of the top scorers in the nation in UNO’s Derek St. Hilaire and Nicholls’ Ty Gordon. Gordon is 10th in the NCAA in scoring at 21.1 points per game, while St. Hilaire is right behind him at 20.6 – 13th best in the country. During the first meeting this season the Privateer defense held Gordon to just 11 points on 5-of-16 shooting. St. Hilaire scored 23 on 7-of-17 shooting that afternoon.
The Privateers lead the all-time series with Nicholls 20-16 but are just 6-10 all-time in Thibodaux. UNO clinched it’s only Southland Regular Season Championship on the final day of 2016-2017 at Stopher Gymnasium with a 74-64 victory. Erik Thomas led the Privateers that day with 21 points and 12 rebounds.
The women’s team (3-17, 2-11 Southland) enters the final day of the season with a shot to move up a spot in the Southland standings. With a win against Nicholls (4-20, 2-11 Southland), New Orleans would slide up to the 7-seed for the conference tournament next week in Katy.
Last time out saw a couple of returns and debuts for the Privateers. Justice Ross, who transferred from Minnesota, played her first game against HBU and logged four points in 10 minutes. Tomyree Thompson played in her first game since Jan. 22 and had six points in 15 minutes.
The Privateer women are 26-24 all-time against Nicholls but the Colonels have a 13-9 edge in games played in Thibodaux. New Orleans has not won in Thibodaux since 2008 (0-8)
HOW TO WATCH / LISTEN
Both games are part of the Southland Game of the Week package and can be viewed on ESPN+. Jude Young will call the women’s game on UNOPrivateers.com and the men’s game on NASH 106.1 FM. Tipoff for the women are set at 1 p.m. with the men set to follow around 3:30 p.m.
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