Ragin' Cajuns suffer yet another late collapse

[NewsCopy]

For first time this season, UL loses second straight

Louisiana’s men’s basketball team played its fifth straight road contest here Monday night ... and it showed.

The Ragin’ Cajuns let leads of 18 points in the first half and 17 points in the second half slip away down the stretch as North Texas rallied for a 71-68 Sun Belt Conference victory over the tired Cajun squad.

The loss delayed a celebration for the Cajuns (15-8, 10-3 Sun Belt), who could have locked up the overall Sun Belt title and the No. 1 seed for the league’s postseason tournament with a win. Conversely, North Texas (12-13, 7-6) took a major step toward assuring itself a berth in the league tourney.

The Cajuns, who lost at Rice 81-76 Saturday in the ESPN “Bracket Buster” event, lost consecutive games for the first time this season and has now dropped three of its last four after an eight-game win streak.

“We’re tired,” said Cajun coach Jessie Evans. “Five on the road didn’t help us. That didn’t lose the game for us tonight, but it was a contributor.”

What also contributed was 20 UL turnovers — on the heels of 21 in Saturday’s loss — and a 45-33 rebound advantage for a Mean Green squad that had 22 offensive boards.

Many of those rebounds came in the final 16 minutes after Orien Greene’s driving layup gave the visiting Cajuns a 44-27 lead with 16:03 left. It was still a 10-point game with less than 12 minutes left after Brad Boyd’s three-pointer put UL in front 50-40.

That trey gave Boyd 254 three-point baskets in his career, surpassing Sydney Grider’s old school mark of 253 set from 1988-90, but that was about the last thing that went right for the Cajuns.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[Turbine]

I am not surprised by the loss, 5 straight road games and not coming home in between will do that for you.

Still the Cajuns should never have let North Texas come back into the game, period. Turnovers create comebacks.

Perhaps the fact that it was the Mean Green's final home game in what they call the Super Pit, gave them a do or die attitude. Johnny Jones did a heck of a coaching job in the second half, though it helps when you players start hitting shots.

The Mean Green hitting their shots in the second half (to me) was a direct result of only 7 UL players being tired and not as in the face of the opponent as they were for the first 25 minutes of the game.

I don't think any less of this team, I just hope Jessie brings the whole team to Kentucky.