LOUISIANA La. - The goal for the University of Louisiana's men's basketball team was to get back to .500 by the holiday break, but that goal didn't look promising with less than a minute left Thursday night.

The Ragin' Cajuns trailed longtime rival McNeese State by four points on a foreign floor after an up-and-down second-half performance.

That was before the Cajuns got the last two of Brian Hamilton's 20 points, a defensive stop, three offensive rebounds and a horn-beating game-winning three-point shot from Chris Cameron. The 71-70 victory over the Cowboys sent a large contingent of UL fans heading back down I-10 with visions of sugar plums and a first road win dancing through their heads.

"Santa came in time for us tonight," said Cajun coach Robert Lee, whose team took its second straight win and now stands at 5-5 entering an extended break. UL doesn't return to action until after the New Year, traveling to face Vanderbilt on Jan. 2 in Nashville.

The Cajuns should be used to that kind of travel, and facing that level of opposition. UL lost games to second-ranked Kansas (96-51) and 12th-ranked North Carolina State (78-72) in the space of five days, before rallying for a 67-50 win over Georgia State last Monday at home.

"After we got embarrassed at Kansas," said Cameron, "we've been practicing twice a day. We had to get everybody on the same page. We needed to do that tonight since this is a good rivalry. Since I've been here it's always been close, and it was good to see a lot of fans come down to support us."

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com