HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men’s basketball team got a career game out of Roger McFarlane, but a first half that saw the Lions get outscored by 20 points by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was too much to overcome, falling to the Islanders 83-72 Saturday afternoon at the University Center.
A&M-Corpus Christi scored the game’s first seven points before Nick Caldwell got the Lions on the board with a jumper in the paint. That Caldwell bucket was the first two of six straight Southeastern points as SLU got it down to 7-6 when Boogie Anderson dropped in a pair of free throws with 14:56 left in the first half. The two teams traded buckets as another jumper by Caldwell made it 9-8.
However, that’s when the Islanders started to pull away, going on a 16-2 run as a fastbreak three put TAMUCC up 25-10 with 8:30 left before the break. SLU scored seven of the next nine points to cut the deficit down to 10 as another Anderson free throw made it 27-17 Islanders with 6:22 left. TAMUCC wouldn’t let the Lions get any closer, going on a 17-6 run to push the advantage out to 21 on a free throw with 1:30 left before halftime. The Islanders led 48-28 at the break.
SLU couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the second half as the Lions tried to cut into the deficit as McFarlane came out of the locker room scorching hot, hitting three straight three-pointers around a three by TAMUCC Roscoe Eastmond capped the 12-5 spurt by Southeastern by draining his own three-pointer and in less than 3:20 into the second half, the Lions had cut seven points off the A&M-Corpus Christi halftime lead.
Southeastern whittled it all the way down to 11 points just 6:15 into the second period as Alec Woodard hit a free throw to make it 56-45 with 13:45 left. But the Islanders scored the next six points to reopen the advantage, eventually pushing the margin back up to 21 with 9:45 left at 68-47.
Trailing 72-51 with 7:15 left, a three by Matthew Strange started a last-second run to try and make the end of the game interesting as Southeastern went on a 15-4 run, capped by a pair of Woodard free throws to make the deficit just 10 points at 76-66 with 1:56 left. But that would be as close as SLU would get and TAMUCC closed out the contest.
McFarlane finished the contest with 28 points, besting his previous career high of 23 points set against Southeastern Baptist back in Nov. 2021. He hit 10 of his 15 shot attempts, including five of eight from above the arc and three of four from the stripe. McFarlane also co-led the team in rebounds with eight and had an assist. Anderson hit eight of hit 10 free throw attempts on his way to 14 points. He also grabbed five rebounds and had two a pair of assists. Caldwell also finished the game with 14 points as he also grabbed eight rebounds to go with three assists, two blocks, and two steals.
The Lions couldn’t overcome a first half where A&M-Corpus Christi went 20 of 40 from the field while Southeastern was nine of 28. A main part of that was rebounding where the Islanders grabbed 16 offensive boards and turned that into 21 second chance points while SLU got six total offensive rebounds for just two second chance points. Points in the paint also went TAMUCC’s way, 42-26.
The Lions (14-10, 8-3 SLC) saw their longest win streak of the season snapped at four games for the second time this season while seeing A&M-Corpus Christi pull into a tie with SLU at the top of the Southland Conference standings. SLU looks to stay atop the conference standings on Thursday night down in Lake Charles with a trip to face McNeese State. Tip-off of Thursday’s game against the Cowboys (5-18, 2-8 SLC) is set for 7:30 P.M. at the Legacy Center.
{Courtesy: Southeastern Athletics}
