NEW ORLEANS, La. (12/22/07) ? The Arkansas State men's basketball team (5-6, 1-1) had four players score in double figures and made a late rally, but New Orleans (10-2, 1-0) was able to hold off the Indians for an 84-78 victory Saturday night at the Human Performance Center in a Sun Belt Conference game.

UNO held a double-figure lead for much of the second half and took a 78-66 advantage with 3:10 remaining, but ASU went on a 7-0 run to cut the Privateers' lead to 78-73 at the 1:40 mark.  However, neither team was able to score again until New Orleans hit two free throws with 24 second left.  ASU's P.J. Keaton hit two more shots, including one of his three 3-pointers, over the final seconds, but the Indians couldn't get any closer than six points the rest of the way.

“I felt like we did a lot of good things tonight, it just didn't show up on the score board and we're disappointed about that,” said ASU Head Coach Dickey Nutt.  “But I'm not disappointed in the way we played.  A lot of guys played well and really stepped up, we just couldn't stop them.  They have outstanding players and we played them well.  Right now we have to learn from our mistakes, get back home and get ready for our next game.”

Among ASU's four players scoring in double figures, three of them set career highs.  Keaton scored a career and team-high 15 points, while senior center Kewain Gant and Ifeanyi Koggu both added a career-high 14 points.  Gant also finished with a career-high 11 rebounds to record his first double-double at ASU.  Morgan finished with 13 points and added seven rebounds, three assists and one steal.

ASU shot 58 percent from the field in comparison to New Orleans' 53 percent and had six more rebounds, but turned the ball over 15 times that the Privateers turned into 25 points.  UNO hit 10 shots from beyond the arc, two more than ASU, and also made eight more free throws.

The Indians held a 9-3 lead after the game's first four minutes, but the Privateers went on 10-0 run to take a 13-9 lead with 13:49 remaining in the first half.  UNO, which hit 7-of-11 shots from beyond the arc and hit 58 percent of its field goal attempts, held the advantage the rest of the opening 20 minutes and its 47-35 halftime lead tied its largest of the first half.

The Indians shot the ball well during the first half as well with a .625 percentage, but turned the ball over 10 times that led to 17 UNO points.

UNO was led by James Parlow with 25 points and Bo McCalebb with 22.  Kyndall Dykes added 12 more points as the final UNO player scoring in double digits.