Box Score 
NEW ORLEANS – John Jordan's jumper with 27.8 seconds left in overtime lifted Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to a 71-67 win over New Orleans on Saturday night at Lakefront Arena. Bryce Douvier and Rashawn Thomas each posted double-doubles in the win for the Islanders, who improved to 10-8 on the year (5-1 Southland).
Jordan posted 13 points, five assists, six rebounds and three steals in the game. With that, he moved past Michael Hicks into second place on the career scoring list and past Taurean Mitchell into second in career steals as well. Brandon Pye added 11 points for the Islanders, giving the visitors four players in double figures to improve to 5-0 this year in that scenario.
Kevin Hill had 14 points and 11 boards to lead the Privateers, while Nate Frye (14), Kevin Brown (13) and Christavious Gill (10) also finished in double digits for the home squad. The Islanders won the battle of the boards, 40-39, in a hard-fought contest.
Early on, it looked as though the visitors would run away with it, but a tremendous comeback by New Orleans followed. Rallying from a 23-4 deficit, the home squad pushed all the way into the lead in the second half, as a Colton Weisbrod layup put them up two with 9:23 to play. After a Gill jumper, Douvier came through with a big three to cut the lead to one. From there, it was back-and-forth action.
Another Douvier three with 4:59 left put the visitors up one, and a Jordan jumper stretched the lead to three. Gill got UNO back within one on a layup, then the Islanders hit three straight free throws to stretch the lead to four with 44 seconds to play. On the ensuing possession, a fortunate carom went right to Brown in the right corner and he drilled a three to cut the deficit to one with 32.9 seconds remaining.
On the inbound that followed, Cole Martinez stepped to the line after being fouled and coolly drained a pair of free throws to put the lead at three. Brown then used a head fake to get his defender in the air, drew the foul and hit all three free throws to tie the game and send it to overtime.
In the extra session, the two teams traded baskets to a 62-62 score, then UNO got the next four points to garner a 66-62 advantage. But the Islanders refused to wilt, as Thomas spun free for a layup to make it 66-64. After getting a stop on the other end, Jordan came up huge, shaking his defender and then drilling a jumper just inside the three-point line to tie the game with 1:27 left.
A&M-Corpus Christi then had solid defense to force a turnover, setting up Jordan's go-ahead jumper at the 27.8-second mark. Each team went 1-for-2 at the line on their next possessions, and Thomas came up with a huge block with 12.3 seconds to play. Brown followed with a three-point attempt from the corner, but it was long. Jordan snared the rebound and sent it ahead to Ehab Amin, who slammed it home to ice the game.
The first half was divided into two starkly different segments. In the first part, A&M-Corpus Christi came out blazing hot from the field, hitting nine of their first 12 shots to open up a 23-4 lead. Douvier was the ringleader, knocking down all three of his shots including a three-pointer to post seven points in the game's first 8:26. The Islanders eventually pushed the lead to 20 after Douvier's second triple and a beautiful off-balance layup by Jelani Currie. After the teams traded baskets, the score sat at 35-15 with 5:43 to play in the half.
At that juncture, the visitors found themselves discombobulated on the offensive end, and the Privateers took advantage, rolling off a 14-0 run to close the half. Four of the UNO baskets came off of Islanders turnovers, including the final blow, a three from Brown that cut the deficit to 35-29. Brown scored five of the 14 points, while Hill posted six – four in the paint – during the rally. All nine of UNO's points off turnovers and all six fast-break points in the stanza came in the final five minutes of action.
The Islanders got the first points out of the locker room, pushing the lead to eight. But UNO came right back with seven in a row, the final two on a layup by Bryce Jackson. From that point, the two teams traded points to a 43-43 score, setting up Weisbrod's layup and the first lead of the game for the Privateers.
The Islanders will continue their road trip on Monday with a trip to Hammond, La., to take on Southeastern Louisiana. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at the University Center. Yannis Koutroupis will have the call of the game on NewsRadio 1360 KKTX starting at 6:45 with the pregame show.
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