HOUSTON, Texas – Marlain Veal scored 26 points to lead the Southeastern Louisiana men’s basketball team to their third straight win edging Houston Baptist, 70-67, Wednesday night at Sharp Gym. The Lions (7-12, 3-3 Southland) shot 23-for-47 from the field for 49 percent and had 19 assists to help overcome 22 turnovers. Veal, the Southland Conference leading scorer in Southland games, shot 7-for-17 from the field and 5-for-11 from the three-point line. The senior also added five assists and three steals. Houston Baptist’s Ian Dubose led the Huskies with 22 points. Moses Greenwood, a senior from Sharon, Mississippi added 15 points for the Lions on 6-for-10 shooting. Junior Von Julien added nine points and seven rebounds. Freshman Ty Brewer, making his first career start, had eight points, filling in for Keith Charleston who missed the game with a leg injury. Despite Brewer’s performance, he was ejected with 8:11 to go after he was called for a flagrant foul. Pape Diop, a 6-9 Senegal native, played valuable minutes scoring four points and grabbing seven rebounds in 16 minutes.
“With Keith out, we had to really go down the line,” said fifth-year SLU head basketball coach Jay Ladner. “I thought Ty played really well until his ejection. But then we had guys like Pape come pick up the slack and make some big plays for us.”
SLU led by 16, 39-23, early in the second half, before HBU (5-12, 1-5 Southland) began to rally back. However, the Lions led, 55-44, with 10:11 remaining. The Huskies closed the gap going on a 9-2 run, making it 57-53 SLU. Southeastern regained a three-possession lead, 64-57, with 2:48 remaining. Things would get very tense over the final two minutes as HBU trimmed the lead to one, 69-68. But Greenwood hit two clutch free throws with 29 seconds left to push it back to three, 71-68. The Lions appeared to be moments away from clinching the game as they had the ball with seven seconds left leading by three. SLU turned it over and DuBose got off a game-tying attempt at a three-pointer but missed as the Lions hung on for the win. Southeastern outrebounded the Huskies 32-24 and shot 16-for-23 from the free throw line. HBU was 18-for-24 from the charity stripe.
“We weren’t as good as we have been at the free throw line,” said Ladner. “But we hit some big ones down the stretch to ice win the game. I thought we just kind of lost focus and had too many turnovers in the second half and let them back in the game but I also give them credit. They hit some big shots and really made us work down the stretch. Two weeks ago we probably lose that game but we have matured a lot and tonight was just another step in the right direction. But now we have to turn our attention to Saturday and get ready for another tough road test (at Northwestern State).
HBU’s Edward Hardt added 19 points to complement DuBose. The Huskies committed 22 turnovers and had just nine assists. SLU will take on Northwestern State (7-12, 2-4 Southland) Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Natchitoches, Louisiana to wrap up a three-game road trip. NSU lost to league-leading Sam Houston State (11-8, 6-0 Southland) Wednesday night at home, 78-64.
Article courtesy of Southeastern Sports Information Department.