2003-04 Lady Cajun's Basketball

[CajunNation]

Coach Hall is taking away one of the last excuses other conferences use in puting us down. Great job ladies. First place in the conference.

Coach Bustle, your turn.

[Oldman]

i attended the basketball game last night and watched a much improved lady cajun team, coach Kelly is doing a very good job, the only dissapointment was, there were hardly any students there, i mean, it's not like the team isn't doing well because they are.....and maybe the university needs to do a better job promoting, after all they are NOW ( i think) tied for 1st place in the conference. If you haven't seen them yet, be there saturday and see for yourself. "GEAUX CAJUNS."

[NewsCopy]

Cajun women stun Western Kentucky

LOUISIANA La. — Admittedly, it’s a short list, but Thursday night’s 80-72 victory over Western Kentucky was easily the biggest victory in the history of UL women’s basketball.

WKU’s Lady Toppers strolled into Earl K. Long Gym as defending Sun Belt Conference champions and owners of a 26-0 series domination of the Ragin’ Cajuns.

“In warmups, they were joking around,” Cajun junior Anna Petrakova said. “They didn’t have their game face on. That made us mad. You could tell they didn’t respect us.”

Petrakova was double-teamed each time she touched the ball, but led all scorers with 23 points, pulled down 9 rebounds, blocked 7 shots and dished off 6 assists.

Paired with Tiffany Washington (11 points, 8 rebounds), Petrakova powered an inside game that saw UL out-rebound the surprised visitors 39-30.

“We knew they had a good 1-2-3,” Cajun coach J. Kelley Hall said of WKU’s perimeter. “But I felt we were far superior in the post. Anna and Tiffany had 34 points and 17 rebounds.

“Bernette Tolston and Sharee Glenn (15 each on a combined 10-of-17 shooting) also came up big.”

Hall’s squad forged a 36-36 halftime tie and then surged to a 51-43 lead early in the second half. That earned the attention of WKU coach Mary Taylor Cowles, who lit into her team during a time out and inspired a 14-4 run to a 57-52 lead.

Tolston nailed a 3-pointer and Glenn hit a jumper to get even again to set up a tense stretch run.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[DaddyCajun]

Nelson better get on to extending coaches contract and FIND money to keep him for a while!!!!!

DaddyCajun!!!!

[1stTake]

I just might have to check out the Ladies.

[CajunFanatic91]

I am impressed. They also played very strong against South Alabama. Maybe, just maybe the Ragin' and Lady Cajuns will go dancing.

[NewsCopy]

Louisiana hopes to beat third straight team for the first time ever

LOUISIANA La. — With each step Louisiana’s Lady Cajuns take, the more confident they become.

How could they help it?

In the last week, Coach J. Kelley Hall’s Cajuns have back-to-back victories over two teams — Florida International and Western Kentucky — that the school had never beaten before.

“First, we had to teach them how not to lose,” Hall said. “And now, once you teach them how to win, it’s contagious.”

The Cajuns’ latest victory, Thursday’s 80-72 conquest of defending Sun Belt Conference champion WKU, will be followed at 2 p.m. today by a visit from Middle Tennessee, the team WKU beat in the SBC finals a year ago.

It’s the latest challenge for a team that’s getting used to slaying dragons of their past.

“We’re just not going to give up, even when we’re down,” said senior guard Sharee Glenn, who had 15 points on Thursday.

The Cajuns (10-7, 4-2) shot 52.8 percent against the Lady Toppers, including 56.5 percent in the second half, and won despite being harassed into 23 turnovers by the defensive-minded visitors.

They won even after WKU overcame a 51-43 second-half deficit and ran to a 57-52 lead.

They won because they’re starting to believe they can, and more importantly, that they should.

“Down the stretch,” Hall said, “the kids just hung in there and played tough. And, they hit the big baskets when they had to.”

None was bigger than the 3-pointer from Morgan Mayon, beating a shot clock buzzer, to extend a UL lead from 72-68 to 75-68 with 1:01 to play.

Mayon saw 15 minutes of action largely because starting point guard Ashley Blanche continues to have back spasms, and Mayon eventually dealt with WKU’s swarming defense.

“There’s not a lot of pressure on me because Ashley believes in me,” Mayon said. “She talks to me and helps me do what I have to do.”

The Cajun upset sent up warning flags in the Sun Belt, certainly visible in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Coach Stephany Smith’s Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders are coming off a narrow 52-51 escape at New Mexico State on Thursday, and they now know the stop in Lafayette is no longer the get-well spot in the league.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[RaginCager]

What happened with the Girls today?

[Turbine]

Originally posted by RaginCager
What happened with the Girls today?

They had a letdown but don't underestimate this team.

They are turning a HUGE corner

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. – Teams who face the University of Louisiana Lady Cajuns basketball squad have two defensive options.

Squads can defend the perimeter and leave their postmen with one-on-one assignments inside. Or they can sag in on Sun Belt leading scorer and rebounder Anna Petrakova, and leave themselves vulnerable on the perimeter.

North Texas chose the latter here Thursday night, and the Lady Cajun perimeter players took advantage.

In all, the ALdy Cajuns hit five-of-six three-point baskets in one streak, finished the game with eight treys, and hung on down the stretch for a key 53-50 Sun Belt victory over the Lady Eagles.

“It’s frustrating for Anna,” said Cajun head coach J. Kelley Hall, “but that’s how teams are going to play us. They’re going to make someone else beat them.”

Thursday, the someone else was junior Bernette Tolston, who banged in five treys on the way to a team-high 15 points. Two of those came in the game’s first 10 minutes when University ofLouisiana (11-8, 5-3) got out to a quick early lead, and the last two came in a four-minute stretch midway through the final half as part of a 10-0 Cajun run that built a 48-40 lead.

“That’s the reason we won,” said Petrakova of the three-point shots. “Teams are focused on me and they underestimate everybody else. Even after we were making all the threes, they kept sagging in.”

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[NewsCopy]

To achieve goals, Cajun women must win on the road.

Louisiana's Lady Cajuns basketball squad pretty much held service in the first half of the Sun Belt Conference season.

Five wins in seven home games has the surprising Ragin’ Cajuns tied for first in the league’s West Division with a 5-3 mark, along with an 11-8 overall record that is one of only two twin-digit win totals since 1990.

The Cajuns haven’t won five league games since 1998.

Now comes the hard part — winning on the road. And it’s a long and winding road that leads to the Sun Belt’s postseason tournament.

The road begins today at 4 p.m. when the Cajuns, winners of eight of 11 games since mid-December, travel to meet Denver (10-10, 3-5 Sun Belt). Between today and the end of February, coach J. Kelley Hall’s squad will play seven of its eight games away from home.

“We know it’s going to be tough,” Hall said Thursday after his squad survived in a 53-50 win over North Texas. “We’ve felt all along like it’s going to take eight conference wins to get into the tournament, and that means we have to win at least twice on the road.”

That might be a tough task in a parity-dominated league. Except for 6-2 Arkansas State, every other team in the league has between three and seven conference losses, and only two have less than three wins.

Only the top four teams in each division advance to the league’s postseason meet at Western Kentucky in March, so the Cajuns have to finish ahead of at least two West rivals to earn a slot.

That might not be easy with the unbalanced road schedule, and with league teams changing their defensive game plans to slow down postman Anna Petrakova. The 6-foot-3 junior leads the Sun Belt in scoring (19.1) and rebounding (10.3), but was limited to 12 points and six rebounds, mostly in the second half, in Thursday’s win.

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — University of Louisiana coach J. Kelley Hall sent his Lady Cajuns on the road for 10 straight games to start the 2003-2004 season.

Now it’s time for that challenge to pay dividends.

Hall’s Cajuns visit South Alabama today in Mobile in a crucial Sun Belt Conference Western Division contest, hoping to reverse negative impressions left by last Saturday’s 73-49 defeat at Denver.

That loss began a season-finishing streak that puts the Lady Cajuns on the road for seven of their last eight games.

USA is coming off a loss of its own. The Jaguars fell 57-54 at Arkansas State on Monday night to drop into a three-way tie atop the division at 5-4 with UL and North Texas.

Denver and New Mexico State are just a game behind at 4-5 and even New Orleans (3-6) remains in the chase for spots in the March 6-9 Sun Belt Tournament at Western Kentucky.

If the tournament began today, Hall’s squad would be the No. 5 seed, but any such position remains precarious until the Cajuns can overcome a history of Sun Belt road woes.

South Alabama, which won 14 straight games earlier this season, edged the Cajuns 57-54 in the Cajundome on Jan. 15 to snap a four-game UL streak.

As usual, Cajun hopes rest with junior center Anna Petrakova, who paces the Sun Belt Conference in scoring (19.1 points per game), rebounds (10.2) and blocked shots (2.55). She had 23 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots in the first meeting with USA.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com