Sun Belt honors Bridges

<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. — It seems logical that the best team in the Sun Belt Conference should earn Player of the Week acclaim more than once during a season.

Louisiana, which is three games ahead of any team in the Western or Eastern Divisions, has now collected three of those individual honors.

It’s fitting that the Cajuns have now gone back-to-back in that area, since they’ve won seven straight games and nine of their last 10.

And it’s also fitting that this week’s honoree, senior guard Laurie Bridges, is the third different Cajun on the list, joining Antoine Landry (Jan. 5) and Brian Hamilton (last week).

“It couldn’t come to a more deserving guy,” coach Jessie Evans said. “He worked extremely hard in the offseason and works extremely hard in practice. He’s practicing and playing like a senior.”

Bridges came up big when the Cajuns handed Western Division hopefuls North Texas and Denver demoralizing losses last week.

He registered his first career double-double in the 94-81 victory over UNT with 13 points and 13 rebounds, then came back with a second one two days later in the 94-74 domination of Denver, grabbing 14 rebounds to go with 12 points.

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Bruce Brown
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The Carver High product also averaged six offensive rebounds per contest.

“Laurie is a quiet leader,” Evans said. “We’re trying to get him to be more vocal, but that’s not his nature. He leads by example.”

Bridges averages 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for the Cajuns, as well as dishing off 62 assists, getting 30 steals and blocking four shots. He is fourth on the squad in scoring and second in rebounds, assists, steals and free throw percentage (81.4).

Star-free UL is led by Landry’s 14.3-point average and has six players in double figures.

“Laurie shows how guys develop in our program,” Evans said. “We anticipated this.

“You can see that with Brad (Boyd) and Antoine, too. Chris Cameron has gotten better. Chris Williams saw action in the (Denver) game the other night because he’s gotten better in practice. And, Matt Foster is starting to improve. He’s still got to get a little tougher.”

Casey Green’s 16.9-point average in 1997-98, Evans’ first year at UL, is the highest to pace the Cajuns in the last seven years. Obviously, the more important point total belongs to the squad.

“The thing I like most about this team is that you had to trust and rely on your teammates to pull you through,” Evans said. “They bought into that.”

All the Cajuns have to do is look at Player of the Week Laurie Bridges for how to succeed at team basketball.
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