Dou Gueye buried a turn-around 3-pointer as time expired and the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Men's Basketball team opened the second half of its Sun Belt Conference schedule with a heart-stopping 66-65 victory over UT Arlington on Thursday at College Park Center.

Jalen Johnson recorded game-highs with 15 points and 13 rebounds as Louisiana (9-13, 4-7 Sun Belt) won its second straight game overall and split the season-series against UTA (9-13, 5-6 Sun Belt).

Gueye's heroics followed a go-ahead basket by UTA's Coleman Sparling with 2.7 seconds remaining, who was credited with the bucket after Louisiana's Tirus Smith was called for goaltending.

After calling a timeout, Louisiana set up its game-winning basket as Gueye took a three-quarter of the length of court pass from P.J. Hardy, turned around from the top of the key and scored over Sparling to give the Ragin' Cajuns their first win on a buzzer-beater since Johnathan Stove's halfcourt shot at ULM in 2017.

Both teams got off to a slow start with neither team scoring until UTA's David Azore hit a 3-pointer with 16:44 remaining in the first half. The Mavs built a 10-3 lead on Jordan Phillips' 3-pointer with 14:46 remaining in the first half before Louisiana would fight back to take the lead.

A bucket by P.J. Hardy, who scored all 13 of his points in the first half, began a 14-1 run for Louisiana. The Ragin' Cajuns took their first lead of the game with 11:44 left in the half on Mylik Wilson's basket and stretched their lead to 17-11 on a 3-pointer by Hardy and a jumper by Gueye.

Louisiana took its biggest lead of the game when Cedric Russell's 3-pointer with 3:52 remaining gave the Ragin' Cajuns a 32-24 lead. Smith gave the Ragin' Cajuns a 36-29 lead at halftime on a layup before UTA would open the second half scoring the first seven points to knot the game at 36-all.

A steal and dunk by Wilson with 15:41 remaining gave Louisiana a 44-38 lead before the Mavs would rally to reclaim the lead as a bucket by Jabari Narcis at the 10:29 mark gave UTA a 51-49 advantage.

Wilson, who finished with six points, gave Louisiana a 63-58 lead with 2:47 left before a three-point play by Azore and a jumper by Brian Warren tied the game with 1:58 remaining.

Russell, who went 3-for-4 from behind the 3-point line and moved past Kasey Shepherd into sixth-place on the Ragin' Cajuns career list, finished with 13 points for Louisiana with Gueye finishing with seven. Freshman Chris Spenkuch added six points and six rebounds – five on the offensive glass – for Louisiana, which held a 47-36 advantage on the glass.

Azore led UTA with 14 points with Warren adding 12 and Sam Griffin 10. Radshad Davis pulled down 10 rebounds to lead the Mavs, who were held to 24-for-65 (36.9 percent) from the field and were 9-for-27 from behind the 3-point line.

Louisiana will wrap up its trip to the Lone Star State on Saturday when it travels to San Marcos, Texas to face Texas State on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

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