NEW ORLEANS — For one UL Lafayette basketball team, today’s contest against New Orleans could be for a share of a Sun Belt Conference title.
For the other, it could mean survival.
Both the Ragin’ Cajun men and women take on their Privateer counterparts today in televised contests at UNO’s Lakefront Arena, with the women’s squad playing at 3:35 p.m. and the men following at 6:05 p.m.
The women’s game airs live over the ESPN FullCourt package and over COX Sports (cable channel 27 in Lafayette). The men’s game is also live to ESPN FullCourt subscribers, but will be tape-delayed at 11 p.m. over COX Sports.
The Cajun men (14-5, 9-1) carry an eight-game win streak into their second meeting of the year with the Privateers (12-11, 6-4), who stand tied for second place behind UL Lafayette in the Sun Belt’s West Division. A UNO win would pull the Privateers within two games of the lead with four games to play.
However, a Cajun win, coupled with a Western Kentucky home victory over North Texas (also 6-4), would lock up no worse than a share of the West crown by the end of Valentine’s Day — with more than two weeks left in the regular season.
“Our guys have stepped up,” said Cajun head coach Jessie Evans. “They’ve answered every challenge, and teams have played hard against them. South Alabama played very hard, so give them a lot of credit.”
USA played the Cajuns closer Thursday night than any team has in almost a month, with UL Lafayette winning 79-73 in Mobile after trailing by nine points with 6:54 left. Orien Greene hit four three-pointers in the final seven minutes including three in a row to spark the comeback and give the Cajuns their fifth straight Sun Belt road win.
The Cajun squad hit 11 three-pointers and forced 23 UNO turnovers in an 85-64 Cajundome win on Jan. 17, a victory that began the current eight-game win streak that is the second-longest ever under Evans.
That game also marked Greene’s first appearance in a UL Lafayette uniform, a 28-minute effort in which he had seven points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Since then, he’s scored in double figures in five of six games including his career-high 28 on Thursday at USA.
“It’s good to come on the road and win,” said Greene, who hit 11-of-15 shots and also had four assists and four steals. “We still haven’t played a complete game on the road yet.”
The Privateers have apparently righted their ship thanks to a homecourt boost, and did it in widely-varying style. UNO, which plays six of its last seven league games at Lakefront Arena, topped Arkansas-Little Rock 100-95 in two overtimes last Saturday, and then put on the defensive clamps in a 51-37 win over New Mexico State Thursday night.
The 37 points allowed is the lowest given up by a UNO club in six seasons.
“That was one of the best defensive efforts a team of mine has ever had,” said UNO coach Monte Towe after the visiting Aggies shot less than 28 percent from the floor and returning Sun Belt Player of the Year James Moore had only 10 points. “Victor Brown did a good job on defense against Moore. We were trapping down on him with the big guys and our weak side did a great job getting in front of people that were open.”
Lady Cajuns vs. UNO
The Cajun women are still looking for their first Sun Belt road win, and that’s important since Louisiana (11-10, 5-5) plays four of its last five league games away from home beginning today against the Privateers (9-13, 4-6).
“We haven’t shot the ball consistently,” said Lady Cajun coach J. Kelley Hall, “and on Thursday it wasn’t just from the perimeter. We didn’t shoot it well inside, outside, anywhere.”
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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com
Perimeter game vaults Cajun women
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the one thing that really got to me at the lady cajun basketball game was.lack of support, i mean it was:
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