Ragin' Cajuns throttle Panthers

[NewsCopy]

Louisiana wins fourth straight, 67-50

LOUISIANA La. -- Robert Lee challenged his University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns on Saturday night to give a better effort than their body language showed in pregame workouts and a better effort than they gave in their Sun Belt Conference home opener two weeks earlier when they lost to SBC Western Division leader Denver.
It apparently worked.

The Cajuns, behind some impressive early defensive play and a game-high 21 points by Tiras Wade, brought the Cajundome crowd to its feet time and again in rolling to a 67-50 win over Florida International.

And it wasn't that close.

"When we played Denver, I didn't feel we played to our capabilities," said Lee, whose team lost to the Pioneers, 72-66, and now trail Denver by a game in the SBC West. "So I wanted to make sure that when we did come back home we showed the fans what this team was capable of doing.

"And for 30 of 35 minutes tonight, I thought we did that."

Other than a slow start in which the Cajuns (10-7, 4-1 SBC) scored just five points in the first four minutes and a sloppy finish when reserves allowed the Panthers to trim a 30-point lead to 13, the Cajuns were both electric and thrilling to watch.

When it wasn't an aggressive defense forcing one of the Panthers' 26 turnovers, it was Wade with a high-handed 3-pointer from the parking lot, or Dwayne Mitchell with a thundering Skywalker-type dunk.

And the crowd of 5,101 loved every minute of it.

The only real negative for the Cajuns was the ejection of forward Spencer Ford with 10:48 to play in the first half. The ejection came after an altercation at midcourt between Ford and Kenny Simms.

It could prove to be costly. Because of the ejection, Ford will have to sit out the Cajuns showdown with Western Kentucky on Thursday night in the Cajundome.

Pending an appeal, that is.

The rest of the story

By GLENN QUEBEDEAUX
The Advocate

[Crowley Cajun]

Spencer being out for the WKU game is definitely not good news. I hope the appeal goes our way. I agree with coach Lee. The refs were too quick in their decision to eject. Even if we don't have Spencer for WKU, coach Lee will have them ready. It will be a dogfight.

[J-Town Cajun]

Where is the article from the Advertiser. I checked their website and did not see one. Did they not cover their own local university, who just won their 4th straight game.

[Turbine]

Originally posted by J-Town Cajun
Where is the article from the Advertiser. I checked their website and did not see one. Did they not cover their own local university, who just won their 4th straight game.

They just added it to the website.

[NewsCopy]

Cajuns cruise past Panthers

The victory was UL’s fourth straight since senior point guard Orien Greene returned to action, and Greene’s alley-oop pass to Mitchell that put UL up 12-4 at the 13:56 mark of the first half was a sign of things to come for the Panthers.

That play was part of an 18-0 run that stretched a 5-4 edge to 23-4.

Then with 4:13 left in the half, Mitchell soared in from the right side of the lane to slam home a miss by Tiras Wade and trigger a thunderous response from the crowd.

His more conventional drive and slam at 2:08 upped the count to 38-14 en route to a commanding 39-16 halftime lead.

The Panthers never had a chance.

“I haven’t been putting on any kind of dunks lately,” said Mitchell, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. “I got up this morning and my legs felt good, so I told Coach I was ready to go. I just took advantage of the opportunities I had.”

The put-back of the Wade miss was the most spectacular of the three slams.

“When I went up, I was just trying to get a rebound,” Mitchell said. “But once I caught it, I thought I might as well try it.”

“Dwayne made some great plays that sparked the crowd and the team,” said Cajun coach Robert Lee, whose team improved to 10-7 overall and 4-1 in Sun Belt Conference play.

“It got me excited, especially the put-back. It uplifts the whole team, and that’s uplifting for the arena. And that makes us play harder on defense.”

Lee was glad to hear Mitchell’s legs felt springy, but his original analysis of his players was less than optimistic.

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[J-Town Cajun]

Thanks Turbine, I now live in Houston and raginpagin is my source to UL news.