Jan. 29, 2005

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS - Junior center Yemi Nicholson's (Aurora, Colo.) 20 points were not enough as the Denver Pioneers dropped their first Sun Belt Conference game at New Orleans, 71-61, tonight in Lakefront Arena. The Pioneers' first SBC loss snaps their six-game winning streak and drops them to 11-7 overall and 6-1 in the SBC. The Privateers improve to 9-11, 4-3.

"No question that they came out and took the fight to us," said head coach Terry Carroll. "They were coming off a loss and we were coming off a win and that showed tonight. For some reason they knew what as stake and we did not."

The Privateers got off to a solid start using five points from Bo McCalebb to build an early 7-2 lead with 15:26 remaining. Denver's struggles continued as Shawn Malloy scored a layup to put UNO up 16-8 at the 11 minute mark. Another layup, this time by McCalebb, gave the Privateers a 22-12 lead with 7:52 left in the first half.

A 3-pointer by Jamie McNeilly at the 6:08 increased the margin to 18 (32-14), but the Pioneers cut the margin to 11 at halftime.

Nicholson tallied 14 points in the half. McCalebb scored 15 for UNO. The Pioneers turned the ball over 10 times leading to 15 Privateer points.

The Privateers came out swinging during the first four minutes of the second half, reopening a 18-point advantage (48-30) on a McNeily layup. A bucket by junior forward Andrew Carpenter (Toronto, Ontario) cut the margin to 52-38 remaining with 11:53 remaining. The two teams traded baskets over the next 12 minutes, but senior point guard Rodney Billups (Denver, Colo.) fouled out and McCalebb just took over, finishing the game with 30 points.

Nicholson scored 20 points. Sophomore forward Antonio Porch (Denver, Colo.) added 17. UNO made 51.9 percent (28-54) of its field goal attempts and scored 19 points off 15 Denver turnovers.

The Pioneers return home for two games next weekend. Denver hosts New Mexico State on Thursday, Feb. 3 (8 p.m.) and Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday, Feb. 5 (6 p.m.)