DENTON, Texas - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns punched out Middle Tennessee early and punched their ticket for the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals with a 71-57 victory here Sunday night at the Super Pit on the campus of North Texas.

Coach Robert Lee's 18-10 defending Sun Belt champions will meet Florida International at 9 p.m. tonight in the second of two semifinals on the day, following a matchup between Denver and Western Kentucky.

The Cajuns established their own tempo and control early and put together a 9-point 33-24 halftime lead. Then, once Chris Cameron hit a pair of free throws to start the second half, the Blue Raiders never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

In fact, MT was able to get back-to-back buckets on just one occasion.

UL owned a 64-46 lead when the Raiders finally got an 8-point spurt to cut it to 10 one last time at 64-54. But that wasn't nearly enough.

"To begin with, I thought we played one of our best ball games of the year," Lee said. "We got the ball out in transition and were able to make open shots. Our plan was to go inside out and take it to the basket.

"We didn't start out that great on defense, because they were making 3-pointers early, but that also meant they weren't going inside to Steve Thomas."

Thomas, who had 17 points and 17 rebounds in a 77-63 win over New Mexico State, fouled out with two points and four rebounds.

"I think it's quite obvious we got beat by a better team tonight," MT coach Kermit Davis said. "They're the one team in the league that intimidates us physically. They're the best rebounding team in the league and they dominated us on the boards."

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com