UM Men Fall to SUNO 81-73

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Despite out-shooting the Knights on their own home floor, the University of Mobile Rams (22-9, 12-5) gave up a one point halftime advantage and lost to Southern University-New Orleans (SUNO) 81-73 Thursday night at The Castle in New Orleans, La.

With the loss, the Rams fall out of a three-way tie for first place with SUNO and Xavier University a top the GCAC standings.

Trailing 42-37 with just 52 seconds remaining in the first half, Jacob Loucks hit a short jump shot cutting the lead to three points at 42-39. 

After a layup by Randy Jordan with 25 seconds left pulled the Rams to within one, Jordan then poked the ball out of a SUNO player’s hand resulting in a Gabe Feagin basket with just eight seconds remaining giving the Rams a 43-42 halftime advantage.

In the second half, the Knights scored the first five points to take a 47-43 lead before junior Larry Burgess came off the bench to score 13 straight points for the Rams. 

After hitting back-to-back three pointers, Burgess knifed through the lane and hit an off-balanced shot for his eighth consecutive point.

Next, Burgess stole the ball at half court and raced the other way laying it up for a 55-49 Mobile lead.   

After a pair of three throws by SUNO’s Dennis Williams cut the lead to four, Burgess again hit from beyond the arc giving the Rams their biggest lead of the game at 58-51.   

Burgess led all Ram scorers with 22 points on the night while junior Gimel Lewis pitched in with 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Williams sank 14 of 15 free throws and scored 28 points for the Knights who improve to 13-4 in conference play and remain tied with Xavier for first place after Xavier’s 63-60 win last night over Tougaloo College.

While the 24^th-ranked Rams have been eliminated from a shot at winning the regular season GCAC conference title, they still have hopes of either winning the conference tournament and receiving an automatic bid to the national tournament or receiving an at-large bid.

Mobile will next be in action on Saturday, Feb. 28 when the Rams host cross-town rival Spring Hill College in the final regular season game of the year.  The Rams won the last meeting with Spring Hill at the Arthur Outlaw Center 69-54 back on Jan. 31.