Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns had so much fun celebrating Senior Night on Saturday at the Cajundome that it took a while for them to settle down and play basketball.

Once they did, though, the celebration was complete.

North Texas took advantage of UL's temporary lack of focus and sped to a 25-15 first-half lead, but the Cajuns came roaring back for an 80-67 victory to stay a game ahead of Denver in the Sun Belt Conference Western Division race.

"After all the awards, we still had to play the game," said Brian Hamilton, who had 16 points and 6 rebounds in his final home appearance.

"We kind of forgot that they were coming off a big game (a 68-66 win over Denver on Thursday) and didn't understand the high they were on."

"Senior Night was a bit overwhelming," Orien Greene said. "But once we got back into focus, we did our thing."

Greene suffered through a 1-of-10 shooting night, but contributed 7 assists and 4 steals to the Cajun cause.

The Mean Green nailed 11 of their first 15 shots to rock the Cajuns (17-8, 11-2) back on their heels, but by halftime they had cooled to 16-of-28 and looked up at a 44-37 deficit at the break.

"They hit a couple of tough shots," Greene said. "They're good players, and good players make those."

"I thought at the beginning, we took their best shot," coach Robert Lee said. "They shot the ball well, and I did not like the way we were moving the basketball on offense. I think we had too much Senior Night in us. We didn't share the basketball. I wanted us to pass the ball five or six times before taking a shot.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com