Some outside help from Cameron
<i>UL center Cameron does damage from perimeter
</i><blockquote><p align=justify>Chris Cameron made the first three-pointer he tried Thursday night. Then he made the third. And then he made both that he tried in the second half.
And still, Western Kentucky refused to go out and guard the 6-foot-11 Aussie.
"We didn't do a very good job of going out and picking him up," said Hilltopper swingman Anthony Winchester after Cameron had an important 19 points in the University of Louisiana's 91-76 dissecting of its visiting rivals. "We had talked about it before the game, but for some reason we couldn't find him."
Cameron moved to the perimeter early and often Thursday, hitting 4-of-6 from outside the arc and 7-of-11 shots overall. And most of his jumpers weren't contested.
"(WKU center) Elgrace Wilborn likes to sit back in the lane and block shots," said Cameron, who through the first 10 games of the year was the team's top three-point percentage shooter. "Coach tells us that there's two ways to beat a shot blocker ... you can take it straight to his chest, or you can take him outside."
The Cajuns chose the latter, and because of that they took their fifth straight Sun Belt Conference win and kept the heat on unbeaten Denver.
"They're smaller than we are on the perimeter," said Cajun coach Robert Lee. "We went to a four-out, one-in set, and we put Dwayne (Mitchell) as the inside guy. We figured that Wilborn wouldn't go out and guard Chris, and it was just up to him to see if he could make shots."
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Dan McDonald
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Cameron had been shooting less than 30 percent from the field in conference games and was only 2-for-12 outside the arc in the Cajuns' first five Sun Belt outings.
"I'd been shooting good shots," he said. "But I hadn't been hitting any of them. This was a big confidence boost."
"Any time a 6-11 guy can step out and shoot the three," said WKU freshman Courtney Lee, "it's a big key. But this was by far the worst defense we've played."
That's saying a lot. The Hilltoppers lead the conference in scoring (79.0 points per game) in league games, but are dead last in defense, allowing 77 points in those same games.
The Cajuns shot 55.2 percent from the field and had only 10 turnovers with five minutes left. Every starter except Orien Greene hit over 50 percent of their shots, but even with that Greene may have been the game's dominant offensive performer with 10 assists and zero turnovers.
"They're extremely athletic," Horn said of the Cajuns, "and they've got guys that have been through the wars. We've got some athleticism in spots ... they've got it all the way around."
The Cajuns kept the league's second-best record (5-1) intact while knocking off the team with the Sun Belt's best overall mark. WKU, which received votes in the AP poll earlier this season, suffered its previous four losses by a combined 14 points - making Thursday's 15-point loss by far its most humbling of the season.
"We weren't talking, communicating," said Lee, who finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds including eight on the offensive end in Western's fourth straight road loss. "I don't know what it was. We just need to play better on the road."
"Winning one like this is a big boost for us," Greene said. "We were able to keep things under control, and the big guy stepped out and made some clutch shots. That's what we needed tonight."
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