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EL PASO, Texas - Maurice Barksdale had been waiting for a while for a game like this.
The junior point guard, whose struggles mirrored the University of Louisiana's offensive struggles through the first four games of the season, broke loose Sunday afternoon and did a number on UTEP's Miners.
Barksdale finished with a career-high 23 points, hitting five three-pointers, and led the Ragin' Cajuns to their first win of the season, a 65-59 overtime win.
"This is the kind of game I've been wanting all year," said Barksdale, who was 6-for-10 shooting, 5-of-8 outside the arc, made all six of his free throws and added three assists and three steals with only two turnovers. "This will take a lot of pressure off us."
The Cajuns (1-4) handed UTEP (4-2) only its fourth loss in its last 39 games at the Haskins Center and won their 27th straight game when holding an opponent under 60 points. And UL head coach Robert Lee was adamant that Sunday's victory came because of defense.
"That was our big point in practice," Lee said. "They made a few baskets, but just about every one of them were contested. I'm really pleased with the defensive job we did on the perimeter."
The host Miners hit only 18-of-60 shots (30.0 percent) and went 0-for-6 from the floor in the overtime period to the dismay of the announced 7,752 crowd. Michael Southall and Dwayne Mitchell each hit jump shots in the first 65 seconds of the overtime period and the Cajuns led by at least four points the rest of the way.
In fact, the Miners didn't have a field goal in the final 6:15 including the overtime, and after Miguel Ayala's three-pointer with 6:18 left the only field goals for UTEP in the last 11 minutes were two layups by John Tofi.
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051212/SPORTS/512120330/1006">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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Barksdale's marksmanship helped lead UL to a season-high 10 3-pointers, seven of which came in the first half when the Cajuns took a 33-28 lead.
"UTEP was trying to double-team the big guys," said Barksdale, whose trey 40 seconds before intermission provided that five-point lead. "We had a lot more ball rotation than we had in previous games, and when they doubled inside it gave us a lot of open shots."
Mitchell added 17 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds, and Southall had 10 points despite foul trouble that sidelined him much of the second half.
Edgar Moreno had 16 points to lead UTEP, which was playing without suspended senior guard Jason Williams of New Orleans and freshman guard Stefon Jackson with a fractured jaw - one caused by a Williams punch during Tuesday's practice.
Ayala added 15 points including four 3-pointers and Tofi had 11 points and 16 rebounds. But the rest of the Miners totaled only 17 points and went 3-of-26 from the floor.
"If we can continue to play defense, our offense will come around," Lee said. "We've got to be more patient and get better shot selection. In the second half we got too complacent shooting threes and didn't work the offense enough, but in the overtime we played inside-out and got some better looks at the basket."
UTEP led 9-3 five minutes into the game before Barksdale hit two treys in a 60-second spurt, keying a 16-2 run that gave UL a 19-11 lead. The Cajuns didn't trail again until Ayala's 3-pointer with 15:14 left gave UTEP a 38-36 lead, but Chris Cameron's driving layup and two more Barksdale treys helped the Cajuns build as much as a 49-42 lead.
Tofi's last layup tied it at 53 with 1:17 left in regulation and UL missed a couple of shots at the end to force the extra period, but UL went 3-for-4 from the field in overtime and made six of eight free throws to lock up the win.
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