<table bgcolor=#eaeaea> <td> <font color=#000000> <blockquote> <p align=justify>
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The good news is that UL's Tuesday men's basketball game didn't affect the Ragin' Cajuns' standing in the Sun Belt Conference.
That's the only good news.
The Cajuns found themselves behind by 20 points in the game's first 11 minutes and never got much closer in falling to Charlotte 80-56 in their final non-conference game of the season.
The host 49ers (12-12) gunned in 13 three-pointers, three of them in the final seven minutes when Charlotte opened up its biggest leads of the game. But it didn't take long for the 49ers to build that lead, taking a double-figure margin in the game's first four minutes on Leemire Goldwire's three-pointer.
"We had talked before the game that the first 10 minutes were key," said Cajun coach Robert Lee. "When you get behind a team like Charlotte that's so athletic on the perimeter, you don't have much chance to recover."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070214/SPORTS/702140326/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
<!--
The Cajuns (7-18) never did, even though they cut the margin to 15 points early in the second half on Adam James' three-point play with 15:54 left. That made it 46-31, but De'Angelo Alexander countered with back-to-back three-pointers to put the margin back over 20.
Charlotte never let it get as close again, and wound up hitting 13-of-29 outside the arc and hitting 48 percent overall. UL, meanwhile, was 1-for-13 from three-point range, that one coming from Ross Mouton with eight minutes left in the first half.
"The bottom line is our inability to make shots," Lee said. "The last two games we're three for 29 on three-pointers, and when we struggle to shoot like that it's difficult to overcome."
Alexander finished with 19 points, 13 in the second half, and E. J. Drayton added 17 with 15 of his coming before halftime when the 49ers took a 39-23 lead.
Adam James was the sole bright point for the Cajuns with career highs of 16 points and eight rebounds along with hitting 6-of-6 shots.
-->
</td> </table>
