With 7:25 left in the game the score is
Louisiana 68
Ark Little Rock 65
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With 7:25 left in the game the score is
Louisiana 68
Ark Little Rock 65
Southall fouls out.
LA 84
ALR 81
Emanual Washington gets steal with :30 seconds left.
KJ offensive foul
Johnson hurt.
Little Rock needs 3 to tie. NO GOOD
:11.5 to go "KJ much smarter this time around" first free throw good. Second no good.
LA 85
ALR 81
:3.7 seconds left
<h3>Louisiana WINS 85-81
I listened to the game and we were fortunate to come away with a win.
<i><center>Cajuns overcome hot-shooting Trojans. </i></center><blockquote><p align=justify>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — This time, they got it right. Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns got back on their game here Saturday night, withstanding a fierce effort by Arkansas-Little Rock to secure an 85-81 victory before 5,012 fans at Alltel Arena.
The Cajuns were flat in Thursday’s 84-72 loss at Arkansas State, and needed a better performance if they were to avoid a bad road trip.
They got that in a big way from Laurie Bridges, who scored a career-high 26 points for the second game in a row.
“That’s back-to-back 26 points,” Bridges said. “Plus, we won this one, so that’s even better.
“We knew after Thursday night that if we played as champions, which we are, and played with pride, we would be all right.”
The Cajuns, back-to-back champs of the Sun Belt Conference’s West Division, improved to 19-7 overall and 11-2 in league play. UALR, fighting to finish second in the East, fell to 16-11 and 7-6.
“This game shows the mark of a champion,” Cajun coach Jessie Evans said. “We’re not satisfied with winning the West. We’re all about getting better and getting that bar up high.
“We showed the composure of a champion tonight.”
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/sports/html/FF4B15B1-1C68-41DF-969E-96D5C742988F.shtml">The rest of the story</a></center></blockquote>Advertiser-Bruce Brown
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Louisiana needed composure in the face of a UALR rally that had the Trojans ahead 81-79 with 2:14 to play on a free throw by Kimmo Muurinen.
The Cajuns’ Michael Southall fouled out with 1:37 left, sending Jibrahn Ike to the line for a pair of charities. But Ike, who led all scorers with 31 points, missed both shots and the visitors went to work.
Little Rock native Kenneth Lawrence got the ball to Brad Boyd on the left wing, and Boyd nailed a fadeaway 3-pointer at 1:25 to give the Cajuns the lead for good.
“We got a big 3 from Brad,” Evans said. “That’s his job. We ran a set play for him, and it’s a shot he likes. He did his job and hit it.”
Anthony Johnson (19 points) made a brace of free throws at the 54-second mark, and Lawrence fittingly ended the scoring with an insurance free throw with 11.5 seconds to go.
“This is my senior year, and my last time to play at Alltel,” said Lawrence, who once again got the best of former high school rival Mark Green of UALR.
“I wanted to give it my all with all my family and friends here. Mark and I talked a lot during the game. This is a moment I’ll never forget.”
The Cajuns quickly put the ASU game behind them with a 47-36 first half that featured 18 points from Bridges. They hit 19-of-32 shots in the first 20 minutes and limited the Trojans to 10-of-28.
“My shot was feeling good in the first half,” Bridges said. “They were getting the ball in my hands. I told KJ (Lawrence) before the game that my legs felt good. I’ve got to step it up more on defense, though.”
“Laurie has really done a great job carrying the team,” Evans said. “The guy is a gamer, and I don’t believe he’s reached his full potential yet. He leaves his heart and soul out there.”
Little Rock came out blazing in the second half, hitting 8-of-13 3-pointers after the break. The Trojans got within 51-50, only to see the Cajuns mount another double-digit lead at 66-56 on a pair of Johnson free throws.
A Lawrence layup had the Cajuns ahead 68-62, but consecutive treys by Nick Zachery tied it for the Trojans. Another Zachery trey put his team ahead 74-73, and an Ike bomb from atop the key put UALR ahead 80-79.
“We lost some defensive assignments on Thursday and allowed some open 3’s,” Evans said. “Tonight we wanted to make sure not to lose track of their shooters. We wanted to stay focused.
“They hit some 3’s, but we wanted to make sure they had to hit them over the picket fence.”
“The Arkansas State game knocked us back on our heels,” Lawrence said. “We wanted to come out tonight and prove we were No. 1 for a reason. But, we’ve got to play 40 minutes. We can’t relax on any team.”
“We came out sluggish in the second half, as usual,” Bridges said. “They out-worked us, forced some turnovers and capitalized on it.”
“Once you allow a team back in it, you’re in for a game for the next 20 minutes,” Evans said. “But we didn’t lose our focus or our composure.”
“This lets us know that if we come together, there’s not a team in the league that can stop us,” Bridges said.
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<blockquote><p align=justify>LAFAYETTE — Once they found out they were beatable, Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns learned how to win again.
The Cajuns had their 9-game Sun Belt Conference win streak snapped at Arkansas State last Thursday, then used that as motivation for an 85-81 triumph at Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday to stay on track for the league’s best record.
Coach Jessie Evans’ squad (19-7, 11-2) hosts North Texas (7-18, 2-11) at 7:05 p.m. today at the Cajundome, then finishes the regular season against Western Kentucky on Wednesday in a highly-anticipated home game on ESPN2.
Victories in those two contests would clinch the top mark for the Cajuns and set the tone for the Sun Belt Tournament at WKU.<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/sports/html/5FBA346B-CC93-407A-917F-924BACB9A37B.shtml">The rest of the story</a></CENTER></BLOCKQUOTE>
Advertiser-Bruce Brown
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Thursday’s 84-72 loss at ASU was a wakeup call for the Cajuns, who stormed to a 47-36 halftime lead at UALR before the Trojans heated up with 8-of-13 3-point shooting in the second half and led 81-79 with 2:14 to play.
Kenneth Lawrence dished to Brad Boyd for a 3-pointer that put the Cajuns ahead to stay at 1:37, and free throws sealed the deal.
“We had the lead at halftime and had a little bit of momentum,” said Lawrence, a Little Rock product who relished his last appearance at Alltel Arena with 9 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and just 3 turnovers.
“But they came back at us and fought hard.”
Lawrence was one reason the Cajuns withstood the inspired Trojans attack.
“KJ has been playing more and more under control,” Evans said. “He’s learning at the right time when he needs to be a leader out there on the floor, and when to get on his teammates.
“I know how important this game was for him, and for us as a team, too.”
Laurie Bridges was another crucial factor, scoring a career-high 26 points for the second game in a row (on 9-of-15 shooting) and pulling down 9 rebounds. The Cajuns out-rebounded the Trojans 18-10 in the second half to help offset UALR’s hot shooting touch.
The natural tendency for the Cajuns and their fans is to turn their attention to the big showdown with Western Kentucky, but North Texas comes first.
UNT, which lost 89-58 to the Cajuns at home earlier this season, is coming off a 70-60 home loss to South Alabama last Saturday night.
Jermaine Green led the Mean Green with 13 points, while Michael DeGrate totalled 11. North Texas hit just 3-of-19 3-point attempts and was out-rebounded 38-35 by the Jaguars.
“The win over UALR was for big-time respect,” said Evans, who was pleased and relieved that his team got its edge back. “We’ve been working all year for this.
“I’d like to see our fans come out for the North Texas game. Don’t wait for Western Kentucky.”-->
BEAT NORTH TEXAS
Just for the hell of it we need to get to 20 wins in the regular season UL is 19-7 and I want win # 20 TONIGHT.
Not that I can go to a game, but if the Cajuns of UL lose to a team that is 2-11 in conference I don't know what I will do.
Well now we have win number 20, but not in the top 25?:(
<i><center>Ragin’ Cajuns tune up for WKU with blowout </i></center><blockquote><p align=justify>LAFAYETTE — Tyson versus Etienne had more suspense.
Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns administered an early knockout blow to outmanned North Texas Monday night before 5,436 fans at the Cajundome, a 94-60 runaway that set up Wednesday’s showdown with Western Kentucky.
The visiting Mean Green was without flu-stricken leader Chris Davis, who leads UNT in scoring, rebounding and assists, but he played earlier in an 89-58 home loss to the Cajuns and couldn’t have reversed Monday’s blowout.
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/sports/html/BE392C8F-FE22-4B19-B703-92AD7FE0876C.shtml">The rest of the story</a></blockquote></center>Bruce Brown
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It was a night to play everyone on the bench as the Cajuns improved to 20-7 overall and 12-2 in Sun Belt Conference play. WKU will enter Wednesday’s game 19-8 and 10-2.
“We knew we had to concentrate on this game first, so we could get set up for the (regular season) championship game,” said Brad Boyd, who led all scorers with 19 points.
“We really came out focused,” Cajun coach Jessie Evans said. “Our defense really got after them. We wanted to make a statement in the early going.”
North Texas jumped to a misleading 3-0 lead on a 3-pointer from Michael DeGrate, but the Cajuns roared back with an 11-0 run capped by an Anthony Johnson breakaway layup. They were up 21-7 on a layup from Michael Southall and 27-9 when Boyd nailed a trey from the left corner.
Mean Green players knew they were done.
“It’s a lot different for them without Davis,” Boyd said. “He’s 50-60 percent of their scoring, and without him they were hesitant to step up. They didn’t know their roles.”
The Mean Green had lost point guard Leonard Hopkins to injury earlier in the year, and adding Davis to the missing list was too much.
The Cajuns, on the other hand, were comfortable in their assignments. The starters hit a combined 19-of-29 shots, 7-of-12 3-pointers and 8-of-10 free throws. Johnson had 12 points, while Antoine Landry and Robert Jupiter came off the bench for 14 and 11, respectively.
UL out-rebounded the visitors 45-28 and chalked up 22 assists.
“We wanted to play hard to set it up for Wednesday night,” Johnson said. “We like to run and gun. If we run, there’s nobody who can run with us because of our bench.”
“Louisiana has a very fine basketball team,” said UNT coach Johnny Jones, whose team fell to 7-19, 2-12.
“We played a very difficult non-conference schedule. This is the second time we’ve played UL, and they have one of the best teams we’ve played all year, including those guys in the SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten.
“We’re very young, and you take Davis and Hopkins away against probably the toughest team in the league and that makes it hard. It probably would have been a little closer (with Davis).”
Importantly, no Cajun played more than point guard Kenneth Lawrence’s 21 minutes. Coming off a road trip and with WKU next, they were able to keep legs fresh.
“We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare,” Evans said. “Fortunately, we had played them before and we watched tape of the 10-2 start we had on them in Denton.”
“We came out focused and were able to get a big lead,” Boyd said.
“They tried to run with us. They just missed their shots, and we made ours.”
Plenty of them.
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