Strong Second Half Keys UNO to 62-49 Win Over VMI Hoops

Men's Basketball VMIKeydets.com

Strong Second Half Keys UNO to 62-49 Win Over VMI Hoops

NEW ORLEANS, La. ? UNO sophomore guard Bo McCalebb scored 16 points, including 12 in the second half on five of seven shooting, to lift the Privateers past VMI, 62-49, Tuesday night in college basketball action at the Alario Center in Westwego, La.

The game was tied four times and saw eight lead changes before a Shawn Malloy jumper put UNO up for good, 42-41, with 9:23 remaining. The hoop keyed a 14-4 run by the Privateers (4-7) over the next four minutes when a Chad Barnes jumper capped the burst to push the margin to nine points (54-45) with 5:19 left.

The Keydets countered with back-to-back layups by Matt Coward to close within 54-49 at the 4:19 mark, but VMI went scoreless the rest of regulation.

Coward paced the Keydets with a career-high 20 points on eight of 13 shooting and four of five from the charity stripe. The Richmond, Va. sophomore also had five steals.

It was the first meeting between the schools in basketball. UNO snapped a four-game losing streak while VMI fell to 5-3.

The Keydets fired at a 34.8% clip in the second half from the field (8-23) while UNO hit 50% of its shots after intermission (12-24) after shooting 34.5% in the first half. VMI failed to connect on a 3-point attempt in eight tries and the Privateers nailed five of 11 attempts ? including back-to-back treys in the decisive second half Privateer scoring run.

Todd Bostic scored 12 points and Chad Barnes added 10 points for the Privateers. Shawn Malloy led UNO on the boards with nine.

Tim Allmond added 10 points and five rebounds for the Keydets, but it was a long night for freshman standout Reggie Williams (16.4 PPG) who labored through a 1-13 shooting night and finished with a season-low two points. Sam Mielnik led the Keydets with nine rebounds.

VMI led by as much as nine points in the first half (24-15) on a pair of free throws by Coward with 6:04 remaining before halftime, but a 12-2 Privateer scoring run over the next three minutes gave UNO its first lead of the night when Barnes drained a three-pointer with 3:13 left to put the host team up, 27-26.

The Keydets remain in the Crescent City for the week and will play at Tulane Friday afternoon at 3:00 EST. UNO will play Southern Miss at its regular homecourt, Lakefron Arena, Thursday night at 8:00 CST.

GAME NOTES ? The game was played at the Alario Center, the New Orleans Hornets practice facilty, when the public owned Lakefront Arena, UNO's homecourt, was booked for WWE's “Smackdown.”...regular starters Robinson, Mielnik, and Allmond did not start because of tardiness to the pregame meal. VMI has now used six different starting lineups in eight games played...UNO, coached by former N.C. State guard Monte Towe ('74 NCAA championship) is now 20-1 when the Privateers hold opponents under 60 points...VMI outscored UNO in the paint, 34-26, but the Privateer bench provided 31 points to VMI's 16...VMI junior guard Levar Joseph, from nearby Vacherie, La. did not play for the third consecutive game and continues to rehab strained knee ligaments. He will not likely play against Tulane Friday and is shooting for a Jan. 5 return at Loyola, Md...The team is scheduled to attend Wednesday night's Hornets-Suns NBA game in New Orleans.

VMI HEAD BASKETBALL COACH BART BELLAIRS ? “We didn't shoot the ball well enough to win the basketball game. We had cut it down to five, then didn't block out. We made key mistakes right there at the end. We didn't execute...had a couple of turnovers and didn't box out. We lacked that consistency. The layoff may have had something to do with that, but seven assists and seven turnovers ? not good. We felt we had to keep them off the boards and we did a pretty good job except at a crucial time. We knew that they would drive us to the hole and that's what they like to do and I thought we did a pretty good job of doing that. Not having Levar Joseph...that's a threat...you looked and we're 0-8 (from 3-point range) and we're not going to be 0-8 with Levar out there, but that's part of it.”
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