March 7, 2006

Box Score

HAMMOND, La. - Senior Alan Daniels scored a game-high 26 points, scoring Lamar's last five points, as the sixth-seeded Cardinals upset No. 3-seed Southeastern Louisiana 68-65 Tuesday night at the University Center in the first round of the 2006 O'Reilly Auto Parts Southland Conference Tournament.

Lamar, who improved its record to 17-13 overall, will play at No. 1-seed Northwestern State Thursday night at 7 p.m. The Demons defeated Lamar 80-67 in Natchitoches in the only regular season meeting between the two schools this year. Northwestern State, who defeated Texas-San Antonio 75-61 on Tuesday, eliminated Lamar from last year's SLC Tournament with a 90-75 win in the semifinals at Prather Coliseum.

Trailing 63-65, Daniels hit a three-pointer with 39 seconds left in the game to put Lamar up for good at 66-65. That was Daniels' only three-pointer of the game. Following a missed jumper by Chris Lee, Daniels make a pair of free throws with 10.9 seconds left that put the Cardinals up three, 68-65. Terry Bryant missed a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have tied the game.

Lamar led by 10 points, 55-45, following a Daniels layup at 7:03. Consecutive three-pointers by Daryl Cohen cut the lead to four, 55-51, with 6:06 remaining.

Daniels' jumper put the Cardinals up six, 59-53, with 4:41 left in the game. The Lions roared back to tie the game with a Bryant jumper, a Ricky Woods dunk and another Bryant jumper tied the game at 59-59 with 3:25 remaining.

Jonathan Walker gave SLU its first lead of the second half, 61-59, with a pair of free throws at 2:42. Goodwin tied the game with two free throws at 2:25. A Bryant floater in the lane put the Lions up 63-61 with 2:10 remaining.

Goodwin tied the game for a third straight time on a layup at 1:12. Bryant hit another pull-up floater in the lane from five feet to put SLU up two, 65-63. That set up Daniels' heroics.

Daniels was 10 of 21 from the field, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range, and 5 of 6 from the free throw line in scoring his 26 points. He has scored 696 points this season and is poised to become just the fourth player in school history to score 700 points in a season. Mike Olliver holds the record with 716 in 1979-80. He also grabbed eight rebounds.

Daniels was named to the United State Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-District VII team earlier in the day. The district is comprised of teams from Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Senior Thomas Fairley scored 14 points on 6 of 10 shooting and grabbed six rebounds. Brandon Chappell added 12 points of 5 of 10 shooting from the field and dished out five assists.

Lamar shot 48.1 percent from the field, 23.1 percent from 3-point range and 76.5 percent from the free throw line. The Cardinals outrebounded SLU 39 to 30, which led to a 15 to 9 advantage in second chance points.

Woods, who recorded a triple-double with 28 points, 16 rebounds and 10 steals at Lamar four days earlier, was held to 16 points, six rebounds and no steals. Bryant added 12 points and Chris Lee chipped in 10. Quennell Green, who scored 16 points in the previous meeting, scored just five on 2 of 12 shooting.

SLU shot 39 percent from the field, 15 percent from 3-point range and 84.2 percent from the free throw line. The Lions forced 17 turnovers, which led to a 24 to six advantage in points off turnovers. SLU also outscored Lamar 31 to 20 in points in the paint.