The Book: Lady Cajuns 2004-05 Basketball Season

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J. Kelley Hall is serious about basketball, and Louisiana's Lady Cajuns got that message in last Saturday's 76-53 defeat at Western Kentucky.

Hall's starters showed little of the hustle he expected against the 2004 Sun Belt Conference runners-up, so reserves got their most playing time of the season.

"I'm not one of those coaches who's going to stick with his starters just because a game is on TV," Hall said on Monday. "You're going to play defense and rebound, or you're not going to play."

WKU starters outscored UL's first five, 67-16, while Cajun backups outpointed their Lady Toppers counterparts by a 39-4 margin. Forward Melissa Bratton led the way with 14 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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If you don't want a challenge, don't sign on with Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun women.

Coach J. Kelley Hall's Cajuns are in the thick of the Sun Belt Conference Western Division race, trailing North Texas by a game, and are tied with Western Kentucky for the most overall wins in the league this season with 14.

Closing the deal and reaching postseason play won't be easy, though.

When the Cajuns fly out of New Orleans this morning for Thursday's road date with the Denver Pioneers, they will be without starting point guard Ashley Blanche, who has two ailing ankles and a stress fracture in her foot.

Blanche played in last week's three-game road swing at Florida International, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky, but won't be on today's flight.

Also questionable is senior forward Tiffany Washington, who was shaken up in an automobile accident this week and has been told by doctors not to run for two weeks.

It's the second week in a row in which auto mishaps have affected the Cajuns. Last week Blanche was in an accident driving to catch the team bus for the trip to Tennessee.

That's 40 percent of UL's starting lineup out of commission, just in time to play Denver and return home to host North Texas on Saturday.

"Well, this should be interesting," said Hall, who had to alter his Tuesday practice plans for lack of personnel.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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LOUISIANA La. - Louisiana's Lady Cajuns are a perfect 9-0 at home this season, and they'll need all the homecourt advantage they can get at Earl K. Long Gym at 7 p.m. tonight when the North Texas Mean Green hits the court.

Coach J. Kelley Hall's Cajuns return home on the heels of a 60-56 loss at Denver that dropped them to 14-7 on the year and 4-4 in Sun Belt Conference play, while UNT is the Sun Belt's West Division leader at 6-2 (11-9 overall) after a 46-43 road win at New Mexico State on Wednesday.

A Louisiana victory would elbow the Cajuns back into the division chase, but the Mean Green could take a big step to the title with another road win.

North Texas has won three in a row and six of eight, losing only a pair of games at Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock when it was short-handed.

"North Texas is very big and very athletic," Hall said. "They've got some good wins. They had a couple of kids who didn't travel on the Arkansas trip."

Freshman Erica Howard is a big reason UNT is on a roll. She had 11 points and 14 rebounds on Wednesday in Las Cruces, her second straight double-double for coach Tina Slinker.

"She is playing with so much pressure on her, and she just keeps coming through for us each time," Slinker said of Howard.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[DaddyCajun]

Is our Lady basketball or softball going to be on the air tonight? If so will the men be on 107.9 and one of the ladies on 1420?


DaddyCajun recovering from Gastrointestinal virus-flu and head/chest cold!!

[NewsCopy]

Not again.

That's what ran through the minds of Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns when they lost to the Denver Pioneers 60-56 last Thursday.

With a chance to challenge for the West Division title in the Sun Belt Conference and an opportunity to assure the first winning season in 17 years at UL, coach J. Kelley Hall's squad fell short.

It created uneasy echoes of the 2003-2004 campaign, when Louisiana lost its last four games, including a Sun Belt Tournament contest, to finish 13-15.

The Cajuns didn't want to fall short again, not this time.

Instead of reverting back to last year, the squad got together for heart-to-heart team meetings that cleared the air and re-set their focus.

The result was last Saturday's 73-66 victory over the North Texas Mean Green to pull within a game of the West Division lead.

Just as importantly, the Cajuns improved to 15-7 and assured a winning regular season for the first time since 1987-88.

Star center Anna Petrakova was not yet 4 years old the last time UL had a winning season in women's basketball.

Since that 18-11 mark in 1987-88, Cajun fans had suffered through records of 10-17, 11-17, 3-24, 0-27, 4-22, 6-21, 4-23, 2-25, 3-24, 9-18, 1-26, 12-16, 8-20 and 7-21 before Hall arrived in 2002. That's a cumulative 80-301, a stunning level of ineptitude.

Hall went 8-19 and 13-15 in his first two years at the helm, and now the Cajuns are winners.

"That's huge," Hall said. "We can finally say that to recruits. But I'm happy for seniors like Anna Petrakova and Bernie Tolston. They can go out as winners.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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One-win Privateers may present test if Cajuns nap.

If ever there was a "trap game" on the schedule, this is it.

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun women invade the Lakefront Arena tonight to play the New Orleans Privateers, and all logic says the game shouldn't be a game.

Coach J. Kelley Hall's Cajuns are 15-7 on the year and guaranteed of the school's first winning season in 17 years after defeating North Texas last Saturday.

UNO is 1-20, 0-8 at home and was an 89-50 loser at UL last month.

Add in Saturday's home game against rival South Alabama, and the Cajuns might not be totally focused on the task at hand.

But there's one thing that may get their attention.

The only victory for New Orleans was a 56-46 verdict at Denver, a place where the Cajuns fell 60-56 last Thursday. If the Privateers can win at Denver, as badly as their season has gone, then they're capable of an upset at 7 p.m. tonight.

That's something Hall has been sure to tell his team this week.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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Cajuns maintain top spot in West

LOUISIANA La. - Not this time.

Finally, not this time.

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns had lost their last four games against South Alabama by a combined 11 points, and when USA's Valencia Boswell banked in a 3-point basket with a second left on Saturday to force overtime at 52 points apiece, there was more than one fan in the Cajundome who feared it would happen again.

But the Cajuns pulled themselves together in the extra period and scored a 63-56 victory that keeps them in first place in the Sun Belt Conference Western Division.

"That was tough," said Cajun coach J. Kelley Hall, whose team improved to 17-7 and 7-4 in league play. "I was proud of the defense and rebounding in overtime, but we did not play smart the last four or five minutes of the game.

"We were very lucky to win the game."

The Cajuns led by as many as 12 points in the second half at 42-30, but were in danger of letting it slip away once more as they missed seven free throws in the final 6:17 of regulation.

The final nail-biter in that stretch came with 7.9 seconds to go when Anna Petrakova made just 1-of-2 charities for a 52-49 edge. Boswell's bomb came seconds later.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

J. Kelley Hall was in a better mood on Monday than he was last Saturday.

While Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns gave Hall his first victory over South Alabama, it took overtime to get it done, 63-56.

They gave their coach anxious moments by missing free throws that would have salted the game away in regulation, but then regrouped for a strong 11-4 advantage in the extra period.

Hall was understandably drained on Saturday, but improved by Monday.

"We've struggled putting them away," said Hall, whose team suffered late turnovers to help USA win 57-56 in Mobile earlier this year.

"We missed seven or eight free throws in the last six minutes on Saturday. But in overtime, we had seven possessions and scored (field goals or free throws) on six of them.

"The kids stepped it up in overtime and did what they had to do."

The victory, combined with a North Texas loss on Saturday to Middle Tennessee, put the Cajuns ahead of UNT in the Sun Belt Conference Western Division race.

UL is now 17-7 and 7-4, while North Texas is 11-12, 6-5, and the Cajuns own an earlier 73-66 win over the Mean Green that provides a half-game more of an edge.

The Cajuns visit North Texas on Thursday with a chance to open up an even more commanding lead, although Hall still has a wary eye out for South Alabama (11-12, 5-6) in the chase.

"The North Texas game now becomes our biggest game," Hall said. "If we win there, it's huge, because we would have a two-game cushion that's really three.

"Our kids know that if we continue to win we don't have to rely on anyone else. We'll be ready to play. I just hope we shoot well on the road."

Hall's Cajuns shot a respectable 21-of-46 against South Alabama, making their 17-of-32 free throw woes even more of a mystery. Hitting in both departments would make things easier Thursday.

"We have won at North Texas," Hall said. "We swept them my first year here. We follow the same routine on the road as we do at home, and it's a good routine.

"For some reason, it seems we're always behind at halftime on the road. Our focus needs to be on trying to get out and get a lead."

UL is the only team in the West with a winning overall record, while four of five in the East are over .500. If the Cajuns win three of their last four, they would achieve just the second 20-win campaign in school history, joining 1983-84's 22-6 mark.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[Turbine]

YEARS COACH RECORD
ASSISTANT COACHES

2002-2004 J. Kelley Hall 21-34
Bill Damuth, Rosalynn Landes, Meredith Hall

1996-2002 Gay Nix 40-125
Lamar Boutwell, Delbert Clinton, Jennifer Hull, Scott Hyland

1990-1996 Dwayne Searle 19-142
Shaunda Johnson Bedel, Tracy Seymour, Lesley Langley, Ketra Armstrong, Katie McGraf

1988-1990 Mike Doucet 21-34

1987-1988 Wilo Colon 18-11
Gay McNutt

1983-1987 Ross Cook 57-51
Jan Martin

1982-1983 Jim Izard 18-10

1978-1982 Mary Jo Castell 37-66

1976-1978 Jill Kelly 13-31

1971-73 Linda Nance 32-61

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Louisiana’s Lady Cajuns earned a huge road victory on Saturday evening thanks to a 72-57 win at New Mexico State. The win was the first for Cajuns at the Pan American Center, and just their third Sun Belt Conference road victory.

Louisiana (18-8, 8-5) trailed in the game for just 48 seconds, all coming in the first half.

The Cajuns 18 wins mark the second-best single season total in school history, while their eight conference victories are the most in school history.

With the win, head coach J. Kelley Hall moves within one coaching victory of the second-most in school history.

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LOUISIANA SI