Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns needed a big performance to shake their road blues and they received a trio of outstanding efforts on Sunday afternoon at the Mitchell Center. The group of Travis Bureau, La'Ryan Gary and J.J. Thomas combined for 54 points and 38 rebounds
really good and much needed win tonite guys!
way to play hard all game and even better in OVERTIME!
this season is turning around nicely...KEEP IT UP!
nice! Man, things are looking up everywhere! Is the apocalypse near?
igeaux.mobi
Way to go Cajuns! Four wins in a row!
An article from the opponents perspective.
Congratulations to Travis Bureau...
" Bureau’s 20 rebounds are the most by an individual opponent since at least the 2003-04 season"...
CAJUNS RALLY IN SECOND HALF, WIN 76-70 IN OT OVER MEN'S BASKETBALL
1/30/2011 8:12:54 PM
MOBILE, Ala. – After the two teams found themselves deadlocked at halftime and the end of regulation, Louisiana at Lafayette broke through in overtime to defeat the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team 76-70 Sunday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.
ULL wins for the fourth straight game—and for the first time on the road all season—to move to 7-14 overall and 4-5 in the Sun Belt Conference. USA drops to 9-11 and 3-6.
The Ragin’ Cajuns rallied from nine points down with under nine minutes left in the contest to force overtime and held the Jaguars to just one field goal in the extra frame.
“It’s just a shame that we lost the game,” USA head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “The thing that sticks out in my mind is three key offensive rebounds late that just killed us. They got them and scored on every one of them. We did enough to win the game, but one thing we didn’t do was hold them to 41 percent.”
ULL broke the tie in overtime on its first possession and added another bucket on its second. USA senior Tim Williams (Pontiac, Mich.) hit two free throws on the other end but J.J. Thomas answered with a tip-in after two Cajun misses.
South Alabama sophomore Martino Brock (Memphis, Tenn.) hit the team’s only bucket of the extra frame—a 3-pointer—with 1:58 to play in the contest. Louisiana at Lafayette got another bucket on its third try, this time a jumper from Raymone Andrews, to go back up by three, 71-68.
The Jags would miss their next four shots from the floor while the Ragin’ Cajuns went 5-for-8 at the free throw line to close it out.
ULL committed 20 turnovers through the first 35 minutes of the contest and USA capitalized for 24 points, including four straight to start the second half. But the Cajuns did not have another turnover the rest of the game.
South Alabama took a nine-point lead—its largest of the contest—at the 8:49 mark of the second half on a dunk from senior Gary Redus (Decatur, Ala.). Javan Mitchell answered on Louisiana at Lafayette’s next possession to start a 7-1 rally, and after a 3-pointer from USA junior Allyn Cooks (Bryan, Texas), the Cajuns scored the next five points to close within one (58-57).
ULL finally took the lead on a lay-up from La’Ryan Gary with 1:45 to play in regulation. The two teams traded the lead on the next two possessions and Rubit closed out the scoring before overtime by making one of two shots at the free throw line with 41.8 seconds left.
Thomas recorded a career-high 28 points for ULL, mostly inside, as Louisiana at Lafayette totaled 48 points in the paint, compared to just 24 for South Alabama.
“They were taking it to the hole,” Arrow said. “They were attacking our inside guys. When you get called for blocks instead of charges they start looking to you as a coach like 'You told me to take it. I took two [charges] and got two fouls. What do you want me to do?' And we start getting lackadaisical and they start getting to the hole.
“We didn’t get as many points in the paint as we generally do,” Arrow continued. “Without looking at the tape, we just didn’t move the ball well enough at time against the zone. We held the ball too long. We didn’t throw over. We didn’t pick out of it like we should.”
The Jags placed four in double-digit scoring, paced by Brock’s 19 points. Redus followed up his career night Thursday (32 points) with 17, and Cooks added 14. Williams suffered a 3-for-16 night shooting but had 11 points.
Redshirt freshman Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) grabbed 11 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end. He has double-digit boards in four straight games.
Travis Bureau grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds for ULL and Thomas recorded a double-double with a career-best 28 points and 13 boards. Gary added 18 points.
South Alabama heads north for two games next week, starting Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Western Kentucky.
NOTES: Arrow missed on his first opportunity for 100 career Sun Belt wins… His 99 wins rank third all-time in league history and he is four behind Dickey Nutt (Arkansas State 1996-08), who has 103… ULL’s bench outscored USA’s 16-2… Rubit scored his fewest points (seven) since scoring three Jan. 2 vs. Middle Tennessee… Redus is averaging 24.5 points in his last two games… South Alabama went into halftime tied for the first time this season… La.-Lafayette’s 49 rebounds are the second-most by a USA opponent this season (USM, 50)… Bureau’s 20 rebounds are the most by an individual opponent since at least the 2003-04 season… The Jags were outrebounded (49-41) and outshot (47.5%-33.3%%) for the ninth time this season—the team is 0-9 in those games.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
—USA—
Reading the USA version of things indicates Coach Arrow did not like some of the fouls called on his guys and thought charges should have been called. Note had his team not been outscored 4 to 1 on technical foul shots the game may never have gone into OT and the Jags likely would have won. If they had not given up 49 rebounds and been outscored 2 to 1 in the paint outcome may also have been different.
I watched the game in a sports bar in Lake Charles...I really liked the effort...what we didn't have we made up for on both sides of the ball....it's a win on the road!!!....Geaux Cajuns!!!
His team got two charges called for them that were suspect and tell me how they were shooting outside shots in first half and we were taking the ball in the paint and foul count was USA -4. UL- 8. His players were holding and literally shoving our kids on cuts. He does not need to blame the refs. We were playing horrible for the first half Plus 10 min second half (20 TO) and you still can't put us away???? Please coach.
If he's going to blame the refs, I would suspect he would revert back to the no call on the backcourt violation when Gary through the ball in the backcourt and Daigle tracked it down to not get the violation called at the end of the regulation. It sure looked to me like that was an apparent violation. Either way, we were on the road and gutted it out. Bureau looked like a man on a mission out there. He was playing all over the place and hustling. 20 boards? that's insane. JJ Thomas keeps reaffirming that he could very well be a special player...and I mean special. I was wondering why Mbamalu didn't play as much and Mitchell was really used sparingly throughout the game. Brown also missed quite a bit of time. I thought that the announcers made a good point about our turnovers. They mentioned guard play and the fact that we tend to have a loose handle on it a lot and that really points to Daigle after he made some poor decisions and lost the ball a few times.
I think what their coach meant to say is that..."If everything would have been different and we had not gotten beat in most aspects of the game, we would have won."
igeaux.mobi
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