Southeastern Louisiana sophomore center Brody Rowbury has shed more than 40 pounds on his 6-foot-11 frame since returning to Hammond weighing a hefty 319 in June.
Fitter than ever, Rowbury scored a career-high 19 points and made a couple of decisive plays as the Lions outscored UNO 6-1 in the final two minutes to win 73-68 in the Southland Conference opener on Saturday at Lakefront Arena.
First, he grabbed a missed shot from teammate Nick Caldwell, got fouled and sank two free throws to break a tie at 67 at the 1:42 mark. Then he stole a pass from UNO’s Jordan Johnson, ran down the floor and scored an uncontested lay-up for the final points with 16 seconds left off a feed from Roscoe Eastmond.
Southeastern (6-8, 1-0), the preseason league favorite, won its fourth in a row and will play at Nicholls State (6-8, 1-0) on Monday night.
UNO (5-9, 0-1), picked third, will get a chance to rebound Monday at home against Texas A&M-Commerce (6-8, 0-1).
Rowbury sank 7 of 9 shots and added six rebounds in a tight game that neither team led by more than eight and was tied at halftime.
“You can really see (the weight loss),” Southeastern coach David Kiefer said. “To have a guy probably 280 pounds running up and down the floor and playing 30 minutes (actually 31:34) tonight and being able to make those free throws late and get big rebounds, the guy’s really come a long way. He’s made huge strides from last year.”
UNO committed only three turnovers in the first half but paid for three costly mistakes by Johnson. His consecutive turnovers handed five points to Southeastern during an 8-0 run midway through the second half, and he jumped with nowhere to go before Rowbury cut off his pass with 36 seconds left.
“They were almost pitch switching (Johnson) where they were double-teaming him to get the ball out of his hands,” UNO coach Mark Slessinger said. “We can’t turn it over in key spots.”
The other big factor was rebounding. Southeastern enjoying a 33-17 advantage, including 11-5 on the offensive end. UNO post Tyson Jackson fouled out when he prevented Rowbury from making an easy basket after his final, critical rebound.
“We’ve got to do a better job of boxing out from one to five,” Jackson said. “It’s not just one particular guy. We’ve got to root out guys that crash to the glass, and that’s going to take care of a lot of our problems.”
UNO, which last led 47-45 just under the 13:00 mark, pulled within 62-61 on back-to-back spectacular alley-oop dunks by Jamond Vincent off passes from Johnson and Mason Jones in transition. It was anyone’s game from that point, and Rowbury proved to be the difference,
“He’s a load in there,” Slessinger said. “You’ve got to be able to take him out of the things that he wants to do. You can’t give him second-chance opportunities.”
Khaleb Wilson-Rouse led UNO with 17 points. Johnson, who did not start for an undisclosed disciplinary reason before entering after the first media timeout, added 15 points and five assists but missed one of two free throws that would have tied it with 1:25 left.
Roger McFarlane paced Southeastern with 16 points and nine rebounds. Caldwell scored only six in nearly 32 minutes but had a key late bucket on a nifty up-and-under move to make the score 71-68.
“We just got some key stops at the end and some rebounds,” Kiefer said. “When we needed a basket or a tough rebound, we got it, and that’s the only way you can beat UNO.”