Cajuns force 31 turnovers in downing Owls to move to 2-1

LAFAYETTE — Louisiana’s basketball coaching staff watched video of Rice getting dismantled by Wisconsin-Green Bay in last year’s NIT Tournament this week.

It’s not known if the staff was salivating as they watched Green Bay’s 91-63 win last March, a win made possible by non-stop, relentless defense. But they saw what they needed.

“Green Bay got a lot of pressure on their wings and forced a lot of turnovers,” Ragin’ Cajun head coach Robert Lee said. “We worked all week long on doing that.”

His team responded, collecting 31 turnovers from the Owls and running away with a 75-61 victory Saturday at the Cajundome that could have been worse.

“One positive thing was that it didn’t turn into a rout,” said Rice coach Willis Wilson.

Despite a virtually even game on the boards, his team took 22 fewer shots than the Cajuns (2-1), who gave Lee a victory in his first home game as head coach. The Cajun squad had 17 steals, 11 of them in the first half when the hosts built a 38-24 lead.

“Everybody on our team is capable of getting four steals a game,” said senior forward Brian Hamilton, who finished with six. “We were really active defensively. That’s something we’ve tried to emphasize early in the year.”

Cajun opponents have 73 turnovers in the season’s first three games, a testament to the backcourt strength. UL also had 15 offensive rebounds against the Owls (2-1) Saturday, giving them 44 in the three games, and Lee gave the backcourt credit for that number, too.

“We expect to get a lot of offensive rebounds,” he said. “We’re going to be bigger than everybody we play at most of the guard spots, and we have to take advantage of that. They concentrate hard on going to the offensive glass. Sometimes we get hurt in transition because of that, but we’ll take that.”

Rice standout Michael Harris had 17 rebounds along with 13 points — less than half of his 27-point total in last year’s 81-76 Owl win in Houston — but other than him and Jason McKreith (five), the rest of the Owls had six total rebounds. And Harris, after a putback 77 seconds into the game, and his teammates didn’t have another offensive board the rest of the half.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com