UL to Settle Another Tie in SBC Standings

Quote:

<blockquote>
 For the second straight game, Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns face a team they are tied with in the Sun Belt standings. UL visits Denver for a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 19.

● Louisiana is currently in a tie for seventh place in the race for Sun Belt Tournament seeding. UL is tied with Denver with a 6-8 SBC mark. After tiebreaking procedures, Louisiana holds the No. 7 seed. Seeds four through eight host a first round game.

● Louisiana won the season’s first meeting, taking a 63-62 win in double OT at the CAJUNDOME on Jan. 3. The Ragin’ Cajuns go for the sweep of the Pioneers. UL already owns six season series sweeps over DU.

● The road hasn’t been kind to Louisiana the last six outings. UL has led for only 3 minutes and 20 seconds out of 240 minutes played and has never led in the 2nd half.

● Louisiana seeks to snap a six-game road losing streak. Last road win came on Saturday, Jan. 10 at Troy (W, 83-81).

● The Ragin’ Cajuns are coming off one of their best defensive outings of the season. UL held Arkansas State to an opponent-low 50 points and 36.4 percent shooting.

● The home team has won the last nine games UL was involved in. Last visiting team to win was UALR on Jan. 15 at the CAJUNDOME.

● UL only has one road win this season. The last time a Cajuns team posted only one road victory was the 1994-95 season (1-12).

 IMPROVED FREE THROW SHOOTING 

● UL has shot above 68 percent each of the last eight games – 109-of-143 (76 percent) is the mark during the stretch. Has helped raise season percentage from 61% to 66%.

 BARR BREAKS OUT 
● Jeremy Barr had a solid two-game stretch last week in the ULM and ASU games.

● He shot 6-of-11 and averaged 8.0 points per game while averaging 28 minutes/game.

 BACK TO BLOCKING SHOTS 
● Tyren Johnson has blocked at least one shot in each of the last five games.

 THE 500 CLUB 
● Chris Gradnigo reached 500 career points at Florida Atlantic. Now two other Cajuns are in the neighborhood of 500 career points.

● Travis Bureau (455) is 45 shy of 500. Randell Daigle (435) is 65 away.

 THE TRIPLE THREAT 
● The combination of Travis Bureau, Randell Daigle and Chris Gradnigo fuel the Louisiana offense.

● They combine to average 38.1 points of the Cajuns’ 67.6 average (56%).

● They combine for 130 three-point field goals made out of UL’s 183 (71%).

● Overall shooting percentages: Gradnigo (44.9%), Bureau (43.5%), Daigle (40.1%).

 ARKANSAS STATE LEFTOVERS 
● Louisiana won its fourth straight over the Red Wolves – the longest win streak in the series since taking four straight from Feb. 23, 1989 through March 2, 1990.

● The Cajuns have now won 10 of the last 12 CAJUNDOME meetings and improved to 15-5 vs. ASU in the ‘DOME (23-6 all-time in Lafayette).

● After starting the game shooting 2-of-17 (12%), the Ragin’ Cajuns finished 18-of-32 (57%) in the final 27 minutes.

● Travis Bureau led Louisiana with 13 points off the bench. Bureau made three triples, the 14th time this season he’s pulled the trick.

● Jeremy Barr scored nine points and scored five in the final 4:45. He also posted a key defensive rebound at 1:42 with UL holding a 52-50 lead.

● Randell Daigle scored all seven of UL’s points after ASU went up 33-27 to trim the ASU lead to 35-34. Daigle scored nine of his 12 points in the second half.

● Tyren Johnson picked the perfect time for his only block of the contest. Leading 52-50, he blocked a shot by Eric McKinney with 21 seconds which led to a Travis Bureau dunk.

● La’Ryan Gary left the game in the first half with an ankle injury.

 LAST TIME VS. DENVER 
(Jan. 3, 2009 in Lafayette – UL won 63-62 in 2OT)

● Louisiana outscored Denver 10-6 in the final 5:01 to force overtime.

● Trailing 62-61 with eight seconds remaining in the second overtime, La’Ryan Gary made two free throws pulling Louisiana ahead.

● The win completed a comeback. UL trailed 27-12 in the first half after suffering through a 12-minute scoring drought. The Cajuns ended the final 21 minutes of regulation outscoring the Pioneers 39-24 to forge a 51-all tie.

● Louisiana continued to attack inside the paint and at 12:37 Jeremy Barr bowled his way past DU defenders for a layup that pushed the lead to 12-4. After Barr’s layup, DU outscored UL 23-0 over the next 11:37.

 LAST TIME AT DENVER 
(Feb. 10, 2008 – DU won 63-44)

● UL shot 31 percent (10-for-32) in the game’s first 28 minutes and trailed by 20 points.

● After a long jumper by Travis Bureau broke the Cajuns scoring drought, DU used an 11-1 run to take a 27-11 lead with only 1:46 left in the half. The Cajuns ended the half with three consecutive baskets to get their deficit down to 10 points.

● The Pioneers used a 17-7 run in the first 6:51 of the second stanza to take a 20-point lead, 44-24.

● Two more triples by DU gave the hosts a dominating 53-29 lead at the 8:36 mark.

 SECOND HALF SURGES 
● UL outscored the opposition 53-21 in the final seven minutes of back-to-back games.

● Outscored North Texas 30-10 and followed up outscoring ULM 23-11.

● Used an 11-2 run in the final 4:45 to rally and defeat Arkansas State last Saturday.

 PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES 
● Louisiana has been a team that plays the percentages – seven of nine wins have come when leading at the half and when out-rebounding the opposition.

● The Cajuns are 7-1 when shooting better than the opponent; 2-15 shooting worse.

● UL is 6-4 scoring above 70 points; conversely only 3-12 scoring below 70.

 BY THE NUMBERS 
1-11 - Louisiana’s road record this season. The Cajuns have lost their last six road contests

2nd - In Sun Belt games only, the Cajuns rank second in the league in 3-point field goals made (7.57 pg)

3 - Travis Bureau needs three more field goal makes to reach the century mark this season

6 - Louisiana already owns six season series sweeps of Denver. UL goes for No. 7 tonight

11-2 - Louisiana outscored Arkansas State 11-2 in the final 4:45 to rally for a key victory

13 - Louisiana has committed 13 or fewer turnovers in the last five games, and seven of eight overall

13 - Travis Bureau needs 13 more three-point makes for 100 in his career

13.9 - Chris Gradnigo’s points average in Sun Belt play. He’s scored double figures in 10 of the Cajuns’ 14 Sun Belt contests

36.4% - The Cajuns defense held Arkansas State to 36.4% shooting. That was the lowest since holding ULM to 27.1% on Dec. 15 (2-month span)

39 - Already with 500 career points, Chris Gradnigo is 39 shy of 600 career points

104 - Randell Daigle’s number of career three-point baskets made in 45 career games played

 SERIES HISTORY 
(Louisiana leads 16-5, overall; Louisiana leads 6-3 in Denver; Louisiana leads 4-3 in Magness Arena)

● This will be the 10th meeting in Denver. The Cajuns are 6-3 in Denver against the Pioneers. Louisiana holds a 4-3 lead in games played at Magness Arena and is 2-0 against the Pioneers in Hamilton Gymnasium. DU has won three of the last four meetings in Magness Arena.

● Low-scoring affairs have been the theme as of late. The winning team in each of the past six meetings has scored no more than 67 points. UL is 5-1 vs. DU in the stretch.

● UL has held the Pioneers below 70 points 13 times in 21 meetings.

● The Cajuns’ defense has held DU to 57.2 points per game in the last six meetings.

● Louisiana won the first eight series meetings before Denver upset the Ragin’ Cajuns 72-68 at

the 2003 Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Bowling Green, Ky.

 TOURNEY TALK 
● Louisiana is currently holding seventh (7th) place in overall Sun Belt standings which determine seeding for the conference's postseason tournament. UL is in a tie with Denver for seventh place. A win Thursday would put UL in sole possession of seventh place.

● Seeds four through eight host first round games. As of today, Louisiana (No. 7) is still in position to host.

● The Cajuns trail North Texas (8-6 SBC) by two full games for fifth (5th) place and South Alabama (8-7 SBC) by 1-1/2 half games for sixth (6th) place.

● The Cajuns are in a precarious position. While they are only two games out of fifth place, they are also only one game ahead of 11th place FIU (5-9 SBC).

● The loss to ULM last Thursday eliminated UL from the possiblity of receiving a bye in the first round of the SBC Tournament. The highest the Cajuns can finish is fourth, which is currently occupied by Middle Tennessee (8-6 SBC). UL trails MT by two games, but the Blue Raiders hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

● The next UL loss combined with a North Texas or Middle Tennessee win will eliminate the Cajuns from the No. 4 seed. If NT and MT both win Thursday and the Cajuns lose, the highest UL could finish would be sixth.

 UP NEXT FOR LOUISIANA

The Ragin' Cajuns return home for the final two home games of the regular season. First up is a meeting with New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 22 at the CAJUNDOME. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m., or 30 minutes after the completion of the women's game. The Cajuns will be aiming for their 12th conseuctive victory over UNO in the CAJUNDOME.

Following the UNO game, the Cajuns play their final home game of the regular season on Thursday, Feb. 26 hosting Troy. Season Ticket Redemption Night is the promotion for that evening, with season ticket holders being able to redeem unused season tickets for additional ones to the Troy game.

<center><a href="http://www.ragincajuns.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=15400&ATCLID=3672361" target="_blank">RaginCajuns.com</a>