UL - La’Ryan Gary scored eight points during a game-changing 13-4 run which vaulted Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team into the lead for good and a 84-55 victory here Tuesday in an exhibition contest with the University of Texas-Tyler.

Gary’s spark changed a 17-15 deficit at the 7:59 mark of the first half into a 28-21 lead with 4:17 remaining in the half. UL outscored the Patriots 8-5 the remainder of the half to build a double-digit edge at halftime.

The Ragin’ Cajuns came out in the second half and scorched the nets at a 6-for-9 clip resulting in a 16-3 run which increased the lead to 52-29 with 15:04 left in the contest. The lead never dipped below 20 the rest of the evening.

Louisiana’s hot shooting continued through the eight minute mark. The Cajuns shot 7-of-13 to equal their output from the first five minutes of the half and stretched the lead to 68-39.

Gary led Louisiana with 21 points on 9-of-18 shooting. It was his second 20-point performance of the exhibition season (scored 25 vs. Millsaps).

Travis Bureau scored 13 points and posted five blocks. Tyren Johnson led the Cajuns with seven steals. As a team, Louisiana collected 12 steals and posted nine blocks.

UL forced the Patriots into 26 turnovers and limited them to 31.7 percent shooting (20-of-63). Marlon Hill (12 points) and Hakeem Kareem (11 points) paced UT-Tyler in scoring.

Louisiana scored the game’s first four points and opened a sizeable lead with a pair of triples from Gary.

Gary’s first three-point make answered one by Hill at the 17:14 mark putting the Cajuns up 7-3. After a Johnson steal on the ensuing possession Gary buried a long-range bucket again this time at 16:49 to push the advantage to 10-3.

Louisiana took advantage of four offensive rebounds for five second-chance points in the first four-plus minutes.

The Cajuns seven-point lead slowly faded by the 11 minute mark as three turnovers and 1-of-7 shooting following the first media timeout kept the hosts from building a sizeable lead.

The Patriots capitalized using an 8-0 run to erase a 12-5 deficit. Seven of the eight points came off the hands of Kareem who made two free throws, a jumper at 13:34 and a triple at 11:08 which put the visitors on top 13-12.

A block by Bureau led to a fastbreak layup for Gary at 9:54 which put the Cajuns in the lead 14-13. A Hill layup at 9:10 put the visitors in the lead again.

The Patriots used a 6-2 rebounding edge from the 11 minute mark through 7:59 to keep Louisiana away from the basket despite shooting 1-of-9 from the floor during the stretch.

UL came out of the third media timeout with a charge which helped overtake the upstart Patriots. Johnson made a free throw at 7:59 to jumpstart a 7-0 run to give UL the lead for good.

Gary took over in the next three-plus minutes scoring eight points fueling the Cajuns offense which tore off on a 6-of-9 shooting stretch to build the lead.

Gary ignited the crowd with a one-handed slam at 7:36 to pull the Cajuns into a 17-all tie. He then picked up a steal and went down the floor for a jumper at 7:14 to make it 19-17. After a block by Colby Batiste, Bureau rebounded a missed shot by Ryan McCoy and stuffed home the rebound.

As the clock ticked below 6:00 Louisiana slowly began to pull away. Gary scored again, this time at 5:21, for a 23-19 edge. Johnson stole the ball from the Patriots’ Michael Johnson and then triggered a fastbreak layup by Bureau, who was fouled and converted the three-point play upping the Cajuns edge to 26-19.

A three-pointer made by Willie Lago at 2:57 moved Louisiana’s lead into double figures for the first time at 33-23. The Patriots got a free throw from Anthony Reese at 2:14 to cut the lead to nine points. UL went back up double figures at 1:25 when McCoy made a freebie. The teams swapped baskets in the final 38 seconds for a 36-26 halftime score.

Gary led all scorers at the break with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Bureau had four blocks and Johnson collected three steals.

The Cajuns defense held UT-Tyler to 8-of-32 shooting (25 percent) and posted eight blocks and five steals in the first stanza.

Louisiana opens the 2008-09 regular season on Saturday, Nov. 15 at the CAJUNDOME hosting in-state rival Louisiana Tech. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. The game will mark the start of the 96th season of Louisiana basketball and 24th in the CAJUNDOME.

RaginCajuns.com