CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For the second straight game, Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team ran into a team that just wouldn’t seem to miss a shot in building a double-digit halftime lead.
It was Georgia State on Monday in Atlanta. Wednesday evening it was Charlotte putting out almost a carbon copy of GSU’s performance to keep the Cajuns winless on its brief two-game road swing through the southeast.
Charlotte (3-1) shot 88 percent from three-point range and 72 percent from the field overall in the opening half to create enough cushion and take an 84-68 victory over the visiting Ragin’ Cajuns, who were playing for the third time in five days, here Wednesday evening at the Halton Arena.
The 49ers connected on 7-of-8 three-point field goal attempts and 18-of-25 field goals in the opening half to open a 48-37 lead at the break.
The most frustrating thing for the Cajuns is that the shots were contested – Charlotte was just making the shots over the hands of the Cajuns defenders.
Charlotte made its final three triples of the opening stanza to ignite a 19-8 run over the final 6:39 of the half that broke open a 29-29 score.
The 49ers held the Cajuns (2-3) to just two made field goals (both layups) in the first six minutes of the second half and outscored the visitors 16-5 to stretch the lead to 64-42 with 14:13 left to play.
Louisiana-Lafayette would battle back in the second half to cut the lead to 13 points with just over two minutes left to play, but the 49ers first-half accuracy combined with 15 second-half turnovers by the Cajuns proved to be too much to overcome.
As accurate as the 49ers were in the first half, the Cajuns had the lead cut down to single digits with less than a minute remaining before the half when a Dwayne Mitchell layup with 46 seconds left pulled UL Lafayette within 46-37.
Louisiana-Lafayette would force Eddie Basden to turn the ball over on the next possession and had an opportunity to make it a six-or-seven point ball game by taking the last shot of the half.
However, Basden stole the ball away from Derek Gray with six seconds left allowing Mitchell Baldwin to scoop up the loose ball and race in through traffic for an easy layup to put the 49ers back on top by double figures.
Combined with the opening six minutes of the second half, the Cajuns may look back on the last possession of the first half and wonder what might have been.
Charlotte had five players score in double figures led by a game-high 17 points from Leemire Goldwire off the bench.
Tiras Wade took home leading scoring honors for the Ragin’ Cajuns for the fifth time in as many games by scoring 17 points shooting 6-of-13 from the field and 4-of-9 from three-point range.
Orien Greene scored 14 points, joining Wade in double digits, but committed 10 turnovers.
Louisiana-Lafayette was plagued by foul trouble – which saw Brian Hamilton foul out, and three others pick up four fouls – which hurt when the lead was worked back to 17 points with 14 minutes remaining in the game.
Charlotte cooled off in the second half, shooting 31 percent (9-of-29), but used 14 second-half offensive rebounds and relied on its hot-shooting first half to counter the Cajuns late push.
The loss was the Cajuns second straight – marking the first back-to-back losses of the young season and of the Robert Lee Era and just the seventh time in the last three-plus seasons that the Cajuns dropped consecutive contests. It also extended the Cajuns losing streak on the opposition’s home floor to five games.
With the win, Charlotte avenged the 68-47 loss Louisiana-Lafayette handed the 49ers in the only previous meeting between the two schools on Dec. 29, 2002 in the Pepsi Classic at Halton Arena.
Both teams traded scores in the opening three minutes and combined for 15 points.
Louisiana-Lafayette gained its first lead of the game on a Wade three-pointer at 17:57 that made it 5-4. The 49ers answered with Plavich’s first triple of the night at 17:42 to reclaim the lead. The Cajuns countered on the next possession when Wade made a three-pointer giving UL Lafayette an 8-7 lead.
A pair of free throws by Basden on the ensuing possession put Charlotte up 9-8 at 17:12 – a lead the hosts would not surrender en route to taking a 48-37 lead at intermission.
The 49ers would stretch the lead to as many as eight points when the second of two triples by Goldwire over a one-minute span pushed the lead to 27-19 at 9:06.
Trailing 29-21, the Ragin’ Cajuns slipped back into contention and forced a tied game with an 8-0 run to knot the score 29-29 at 6:39. Three-point baskets by Gray and Wade keyed the run.
After a basket by Chris Cameron at 6:39 evened the scored, Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz called a timeout. The break ignited a spark for the Niners who used a 10-2 run over the next two-plus minutes to stretch the lead back to eight points.
Plavich hit a fadeaway triple with two Cajuns in his face to put Charlotte on top 32-29 with 6:22 remaining in the half.
The Cajuns pulled back within one point on a Hamilton layup at 6:12, but another three-pointer by Goldwire triggered a 7-0 run that put Charlotte up 39-33 with 4:20 left in the half.
The 49ers used another spurt after a Greene basket cut the lead to 39-33. This time the 49ers scored six unanswered points to claim a 45-33 lead with 1:45 remaining before halftime.
Louisiana will be back in action on Saturday, Dec. 4 as the squad hosts St. Mary’s (Texas) in a 7:05 p.m. game at the Cajundome. The game will be the final contest before fall semester final exams and the fourth game in the last seven days.
LOUISIANA SI
Early déjà vu, Ragin' Cajuns Fall on Road
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