WWL: Lumberjacks fall into UNO buzz saw, two games back of the lead

Oh, the paradox of sports. Jubilation for one is the dream-crushing of another. The gut punch that the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks suffered on Thursday in New Orleans definitely registers as the latter on this side of the Texas-Louisana border.

While not technically dead in the conference championship race, SFA's #DriveForFive all but ended in blowout fashion to the University of New Orleans. That isn't to say the season is anywhere close to lost - SFA holds the tiebreaker for the #2 seed and double-bye over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (who they swept in the regular season). The pressure is far from off as the Jacks make the long journey to Conway, Arkansas for a battle on Saturday.

There aren't many positives that can be drawn from what occurred in Lakefront arena. Everything that could go wrong in the first 25 minutes did. Turnovers, cold shooting, scoring droughts; you know, everything that has dogged this team before. And now, Universe #1 (see here) has come to be. New Orleans is all but locked into the top spot and SFA needs to recover quickly enough to get back on track in preparation for the postseason.

Here are some other things we learned on Thursday night:

You live by the emotions and die by them too -

Ty Charles' is the heart and soul of the Lumberjacks. His edge makes him the kind of player that can spark a team when it most needs it. At times, he's been a God-send.

And sometimes it works the other way around. As the Lumberjacks battled an early UNO run, Josh Huntley mixed it up with the opposition and drew a double-technical. Charles was in the middle of it and was clearly fired up. At a time when SFA probably needed a leader to step up and calm the nerves, get everyone back on the same page, and re-focus on the task at hand, Charles drew another technical with his stare-down of the UNO bench minutes later.

It was a petty call by a crew that well-represented the running joke of SLC officiating, but it was a back-breaker too. The Lumberjacks seemed shaken and didn't recover until the outcome was mostly decided.

Credit needs to go in large part to UNO and how they came to play on Thursday. But when a team is so completely flustered by the emotional highs and lows of a big game, the leaders on the court need to take a look in the mirror. On Thursday, the game between the players' ears was more responsible for the way things went down than basketball ability.

That isn't to suggest that Ty Charles change who he is. If he's the emotional instigator, that's fine. It works in SFA's favor more than not. Who has the ability to pull everyone, including Ty, back down to earth, though?

That was the person SFA most needed on Thursday.

Mark Slessinger and UNO deserve everything they've earned -

The University of New Orleans' basketball team stopped being a fluke at least a few weeks ago. You do not sustain this level of excellence by expecting the ball to bounce your way. Like SFA has for much of the season, UNO has continued to get better. The Privateers in Lakefront Arena on Thursday were not the same Privateers in William R. Johnson Coliseum a month ago.

So, SFA fans, let me ask you this: if you knew ahead of time that someone would unseat the Jacks' vice grip on the regular season title in 2017, would you rather it go to anyone else?

It could be Northwestern State, Sam Houston State, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, or any number of teams you expect to contend regularly. Instead, unless a shocker is in store over the next week, it's going to the team picked 9th and 10th in the preseason polls.

UNO fans should be proud of their team and SLC fans should be proud for them. As disappointing, heartbreaking even, as SFA's fall was in the Big Easy, there is probably nobody you could rather see on the other end of it.

Mark Slessinger and UNO, hats off to you.

TJ Holyfield has quietly emerged as the team's most consistent offensive player -

How many people remember the Holyfield disappearing act of January? TJ's game hit an all-time low in a road contest at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi where he fouled out with a goose egg in his scoring output.

The frequent fouls were a handicap all through the non-conference and at least the first weeks of SLC play. Since then, TJ has emerged as the most dependable offensive player on this team.

Even on an otherwise forgettable night that saw the bench play most of the second half, Holyfield (along with Kevon Harris) paced SFA with 13 points in just 26 minutes. UNO was cheating in the low post, trying their best to deny the ball to SFA's best big man, but Holyfield still got his when he was on the floor. There really is no player designed to defend his combination of size and nimble quickness. It seems to have finally come together in this two week stretch that has seen TJ eclipse a struggling Ivan Canete for the title of leading scorer.

And meanwhile...

Canete, Gilmore, and Cameron need to snap out of this funk soon -

Ivan Canete, at times SFA's best pure scorer, has not been Ivan Canete since the month turned to February. Leon Gilmore and Dallas Cameron, SFA's most consistent duo for the majority of the season, have become scoring non-factors. All three need to change that and quickly.

The Lumberjacks have overcome most of these issues over the last few weeks with the accelerated play of Charles, Harris, and Holyfield. Against the big boys, the good teams in the SLC, that isn't enough.

The three-pointer was a weapon for SFA when Canete and Cameron were shooting well. Now, aside from Isaiah Traylor (and his sometimes defensive liability), SFA really does not have a player capable (or at least confident enough) to consistently knock down anything outside the arc.

Everyone has cold shooting nights. It's basketball. When you string together four or five in a row? That's a slump. Whatever happens over the next week-and-two-days, SFA cannot survive Katy without the players listed above.

In fact, they'll be fortunate to survive Central Arkansas.

Hang tight. The season is far from over -

In 2013, the first of SFA's four-straight Southland Conference titles, Danny Kaspar led his team to a 16-2 record. It was a terrific year for Lumberjacks' basketball, one that saw them upset the Oklahoma Sooners in the non-conference, and roll into the postseason with a chance to do a lot more damage.

When all was said and done, the fans of Northwestern State and their 15-3 record were far happier. Because in a flawed system like the SLC has, only the tournament really matters after mid-March.

A guaranteed berth in the NIT is worth something, sure. But SFA, at least these days, is never content with falling short of the NCAA Tournament anyhow. The #1 and #2 seeds are otherwise worth roughly the same: a double-bye and two wins away from the Dance.

The Lumberjacks own the tiebreaker, but now sit tied in the standings with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for that second seed. No team is hotter than the Islanders and if you're in the Lumberjacks' corner, you essentially feel the need to win out.

One more road game and two at home. After falling all over themselves in the big moment on Thursday, there remains a chance to make most people forget about it.

It won't be easy. But has this team done anything the easy way this year?