Jan. 27, 2005

Box Score

HAMMOND, La. - Southeastern Louisiana's Ricky Woods scored a game-high 18 points and the Lions' defense held Texas State to just 27 percent shooting in a 51-39 Southland Conference win here Thursday.

With the win, SLU (13-6, 5-1 in the SLC) extended its current home-court winning streak to 22 straight regular-season games and is now 8-0 in the University Center this season. The Lions will look to maintain a share of their Southland Conference lead Saturday when they travel to Texas-San Antonio. Texas State (9-9, 3-4) continues its south Louisiana road swing Saturday at Nicholls State.

Texas State's 39 points was a season low, surpassing the previous mark set in a 64-52 loss at TCU earlier this year. For the season, SLU is now giving up fewer than 56 points an outing after coming into the week ranked fifth nationally in the statistical category.

Southeastern Louisiana set the tone on an early possession en route to building a 23-13 halftime lead. The Lions came up with three offensive rebounds on its second possession, culminating with a Terry Bryant field goal for SLU's first points.

The Lions led by as many as 13-points in the first half as Woods scored seven straight points for Southeastern. The junior's final bucket during the stretch came on a break-away layin off a long pass from Nate Lofton to give SLU a 20-7 lead with 5:01 to play.

While Woods came into the game as Southeastern Louisiana's leading scorer, he was held without a field goal until he had the first of back-to-back dunks at the 7:08 mark of the half. For the game, he made 6-of-10 shots from the field and was 6-of-8 form the free throw line.

Meanwhile, Texas State shot a chilly 21 percent (4-of-19) for the half, scoring a season-low 13 points in the period.

After the break, Texas State managed just one field goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half as Southeastern Louisiana stretched its lead to 37-15.

Offensively, Woods and Lofton had dunks in the opening minutes of the period as the Lions pulled away. Lofton finished with nine points for SLU.

Anthony Dill scored 15 points to lead Texas State while Zach Allison finished with eight.

Three of Texas State's 12 field goals in the game came in the final 2:17 of the game. From outside, Texas State managed to make just 1-of-13 three-pointers on the night.