Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns had two opportunities last weekend to serve notice that they were championship material.

Twice in three nights, they held 11-point leads in the second half in hostile arenas.

Twice they lost those leads as they fell to Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock in the last two games of the regular season.

The 86-80 defeat at ASU was aggravating, because the Cajuns commited 22 turnovers and were called for 27 fouls to play into the hands of a team desperate to snap a five-game losing streak.

But Saturday's 64-63 setback was more gut-wrenching as UALR scored in the final second of the game before a national ESPN2 TV audience to win the Sun Belt Conference Eastern Division at the Cajuns' expense.

The Cajuns (17-10, 11-4) still had a shot at the Western Division title with a win and a Denver loss later that evening (the Pioneers held off UNO 63-61), and there also was that chance to shine on TV.

After two games like that, the Cajuns will need some time to recover before they turn their attention to defending their title in the March 4-8 Sun Belt Tournament in Denton.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com