Cajuns “ran out of gas” in second half against Dayton.

LOUISIANA La. — Cedric Williams and Chris Williams couldn’t get to Dayton Tuesday night, weathered into Houston Intercontinental Airport.

Ross Mouton and Adam James were nursing a bad knee and a bad back, respectively.

Three other Louisiana squadmen were sitting at home, still short on academic requirements.

That left the Ragin’ Cajun men’s basketball team with only six available scholarship players, playing for the first time in 15 days, and facing the nation’s 25th-ranked team on the road in their historic building.

So it probably shocked more than a few of the 12,055 in attendance that the Cajuns roared out to a 40-31 halftime lead over Dayton’s Flyers.

“We played extremely hard,” said Cajun head coach Jessie Evans. “We just ran out of gas in the last two minutes.”

Dayton rallied in the second half and got two dagger three-pointers from leading scorer Ramod Marshall in the final 90 seconds in a 66-59 victory, one in which the visiting Cajuns were all square at 57-all with two minutes left.

It was a far cry from the Cajuns’ last road trip, one in which they were humbled 79-45 at Georgia Tech back on Nov. 18 in the opening round of the Preseason NIT.

“We’ve gotten better,” Evans said. “We competed hard. I didn’t really know what to expect with us coming off finals and having the long break, and playing on the road against a top 25 team.”

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com