Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns forward Tyren Johnson has been named the Louisiana Sports Writers Assocation Player of the Week after back-to-back, 21-point efforts lifted his team to a pair of Sun Belt Conference wins.
Behind Johnson's guidance Louisiana (8-11, 5-3 Sun Belt) remained undefeated (5-0) at the Cajundome in Sun Belt play.
Johnson shot 17-of-31 (54.8%), averaged 21.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in wins over New Orleans and Troy. He nearly had a triple-double against SBC East co-leader Troy, tallying 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists - led UL in all three of those categories.
Huge second half outputs defined his week, scoring 14 vs. UNO and 15 vs. Troy. He scored 13 of the Cajuns' 20 points in a 20-0 run that propelled the team past UNO on Thursday - changed a 36-29 deficit to a 49-36 lead.
In the Troy game, Johnson scored 14 in the second half to help UL keep pace with the Trojans and maintain a lead of at least seven points the entire stanza. When the Trojans cut the lead to 45-38 with 14:15 remaining, Johnson scored two key inside baskets on back-to-back possessions inside of 13 minutes to push the lead up to 11 points.
Nine rebounds vs. Troy moved him to 158 on the season - a new career-high (previous was 153 in 2008-09) with 10 games left in the regular season.
For the season, Johnson leads Louisiana in both scoring (16.1 ppg) and rebounds (8.3 rpg). He has scored 20-plus points seven times and recorded a double-double five times.
Johnson and the Ragin' Cajuns play for first place in the Sun Belt West division on Thursday, Jan. 28 as they face current leader Arkansas State (11-8, 6-2 Sun Belt) in Jonesboro.
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