NEW ORLEANS - The Xavier men's basketball team took a tough loss here Thursday night, falling 82-59 to No. 25 LSU-S in Red River Athletic Conference action.

XULA (8-4, 5-2) remains well in the mix for the RRAC tournament, but took a major step backward in their quest for a regular season title as LSU-S (12-3, 9-0) now holds a 3-game advantage over the Gold Rush. 

The story of the night was a rough shooting night for Xavier, which shot 22 percent from the field and 21 percent from 3-point range, compared to a 44/38 effort by LSU-S. 

There were bright spots for XULA, however. 

Seviuhn Turner scored a game-high 20 points, in addition to 4 rebounds, a block, and a steal. Nasir DeGruy contributed 10 points and 3 rebounds, while Jamal Gibson was the game's top rebounder with 11. 

Sixth-man Wayne Randall-Bashay had another strong performance in reserve with 9 points in 25 minutes of play. 

Xavier remains at home for its next contest, a Saturday conference game against Texas A&M-Texarkana. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.