Ragin' Cajuns eager to enter conference play

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LOUISIANA La. — Louisiana will hit the road on Friday, flying west for Saturday’s Sun Belt Conference opener at Denver, and coach Jessie Evans said on Wednesday he liked the look of his 5-4 team heading into league action.

“I thought we’d have a couple more wins by now, but we’re making progress,” said Evans, whose squad got over the .500 mark with last Saturday’s 81-67 spanking of Houston in the Cajundome. “We had a good tournament in Arizona, and that has prepared us well.”

The Cajuns defeated Valparaiso 95-71 in the first round of the Fiesta Bowl Classic before dropping a 72-69 decision to host Arizona on a night when UL was doomed by cold shooting from the perimeter in its bid for an upset.

When they came back from the desert, the Cajuns rolled over the Cougars.

“The team is coming together,” Evans said. “They’ve been a good team to work with, as all of my teams have been. They have responded well to what we’ve asked them to do in practice, and that has carried over to our games.

“Each time we’ve had an opportunity to be successful, we’ve made a run. We’ve got to get better rebounding. We know that. And we need to not allow penetration on the dribble.”

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun Statistics as of January 8, 2004

PLAYER FG-FGA FT-FTA TP AVG

Antoine Landry 49-103 4-7 130 14.4

Brad Boyd 38-1138 16-22 122 13.6

Laurie Bridges 36-89 31-36 110 12.2

Dwayne Mitchell 27-51 13-21 68 11.3

Cedric Williams 23-46 19-29 65 10.8

Brian Hamilton 37-62 18-30 93 10.3

Chris Cameron 23-58 19-26 65 7.2

Adam James 4-10 2-3 10 5.0

Ross Mouton 7-14 1-2 16 3.2

Matt Foster 3-7 0-0 8 1.6

Chris Cucchiara 1-1 0-1 2 2.0

Rhett Hebert 1-1 1-2 3 1.5

Chris Williams 1-1 2-2 4 1.3

Alphonso Williams 1-2 0-0 2 1.0

TOTALS 251-556 126-161 698 77.6

OPP. 240-534 86-126 625 69.4

3-Point FG: Boyd 30-93, Landry 28-62, Bridges 7-22, Foster 2-5, Mitchell 1-2, Mouton 1-2, Hamilton 1-3, Cameron 0-5. TOTALS 70-194 .361. OPP: 59-190 .311.

REBOUNDS: Hamilton 62, Bridges 52, Cameron 41, Cedric Williams 31, Mitchell 23, Landry 22, Boyd 20, Mouton 8, James 5, Foster 5, Chris Williams 3, A. Williams 2. TOTALS 299 (33.2). OPP: 330 (36.7).

ASSISTS: Bridges 40, Boyd 36, Mitchell 23, Hamilton 22, Landry 17, Cameron 10, Cedric Williams 5, Mouton 3, Cucchiara 1. TOTALS 157. OPP: 141.

BLOCKED SHOTS: Hamilton 6, Cameron 4, Bridges 3, Mitchell 3, Boyd 2, Cedric Williams 1, Mouton 1, Foster 1, Chris Williams 1. TOTALS 22. OPP: 34.

STEALS: Hamilton 22, Bridges 17, Mitchell 15, Boyd 11, Cameron 8, Landry 5, Cedric Williams 4, James 2, Mouton 1, Foster 1. TOTALS 66. OPP: 45.

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