Privateers Routed at Oakland

Thibodeaux led UNO
in scoring for the
second straight game

At least the Privateers didn't get their hopes up.

Any shot of a New Orleans victory was squelched very early on at Oakland on Monday night, as they were swarmed over by a Golden Grizzly blitz of three pointers on their way to a 37-12 deficit before they could blink. The hosts drained their first six threes and eight of their first 10 to put this one away early.

UNO (0-2) fought gamely from that point on, cutting the deficit back into the mid teens in the second half, but never seriously threatened. The Privateers got solid contributions from their post players, with Travin Thibodeaux and Makur Puou pacing the scoring at 20 and 18 points, respectively.

Freshman Troy Green contributed nicely off the bench with 11 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds.

New Orleans gets eight days off before resuming the season-opening road trip at Memphis next Tuesday night.

Discussion forum game thread

Turnovers Doom UNO in Big Apple

The Privateers (0-1) began their 2017-18 campaign in New York City Friday night, falling to Coach Chris Mullin and St. John's, 77-61.

Senior Travin Thibodeaux

New Orleans hampered its own effort with poor ball handling, committing 21 team turnovers.

Despite not starting, senior Travin Thibodeaux led New Orleans in points with 18 and rebounds with 7.  Jorge Rosa was the only other Privateer who scored in double digits with 10. Newcomer Ezekiel Charles drilled a three to cut the St. John's lead to 30-28 in the first half, but the Red Storm finished the frame on a 7-0 run, and UNO never got that close again.

New Orleans travels to Oakland of the Horizon League for an ESPN3 contest on Monday night.

Official box score

Discussion forum game thread

UNO Wins Sluggish Exhibition

Zeno hits a jump shot

The defending Southland Conference champion Privateers took the floor with a number of new players on Wednesday night, getting their feet wet while beating Division III Huntingdon College, 94-71.

It was the returnees, though, that did most of the scoring, with Michael Zeno leading the way with 18 points. Travin Thibodeaux added 17, and Jorge Rosa 13.  Makur Puou had 9 points and 9 rebounds.  JUCO transfer Ezekiel Charles and freshman Lamont Berzat led the newbies with 9 points.

5'6" freshman Berzat
scores on a breakaway

New Orleans led 50-37 at the break.

The regular season opener comes in 16 days in New York City against St. John's.

Sugar Land Bound: UNO Sweeps NWST

Veillon homered three times on Friday

Needing a road sweep to realistically have a shot at qualifying for the Southland Conference baseball tournament next week in Sugar Land, Texas, the Privateers (28-26-1, 16-14) came through, taking all three games at Northwestern State.

Coupled with Nicholls dropping two of three at Central Arkansas, New Orleans will participate in the tournament next week.  Their seed is still to be determined.

After riding a solid pitching performance from Shawn Semple to take Thursday's game by an 8-1 count, UNO got a similar effort from Bryan Warzek in Friday's game 1 to win 12-2.  The Bucs were only threatened in game 2 on Friday, clinging to a 4-3 lead in the ninth before Orynn Veillon homered for the third time in the series to give UNO its eventual 6-3 cushion.

The Southland Conference tournament begins on Wednesday, with games beginning at 9 a.m.  The entire tournament will be carried on ESPN3.

Nicholls Takes 2 of 3

With one week remaining in the Southland Conference baseball regular season, the Privateers (25-25-1, 13-14) are on the outside looking in.

With the top eight teams qualifying for the league tournament, New Orleans sits at ninth, having just lost two of three to Nicholls, who has moved just ahead of them in the standings and now owns the tiebreaker.

Veillon had a double and two
triples in Friday night's win

On Friday night, UNO rode another strong outing from Shawn Semple and three extra-base hits from Orynn Veillon to a 6-2 victory in Thibodaux.  With a tenuous Sunday pitching situation, the Privateers needed to secure their final home game of the season on Saturday, but the Colonels' Mike Hanchar threw a complete game shutout, overcoming Bryan Warzek's typical strong outing in a 3-0 decision.

Coming into the final game of the series only 1-7 in Sunday conference games, New Orleans battled all the way back from a 7-1 eighth inning deficit, notching three in the eighth and three in the ninth to tie. But Jarred Taylor's wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth allowed the winning run to score.

UNO will travel to Northwestern State (20-30, 10-17) needing wins and help in order to qualify for the conference tournament.  First, they will travel to Tulane on Tuesday night for the final non-conference game of the season.