The Book: Lady Cajuns 2005-06 basketball season

[Rebel02]

Die Hards:
Just got the news. Ashley Blanche will be cleared to play Thu night vs South Alabama. 11 days total off from practice and playing. X-Rays say she can give it a shot. We need everybody out this week. Big Week.
Headragincajun1

Awesome news Coach!!!!!

Good luck this week! Bring home some more hardware!!!!

[CRAWFISH61]

That is awesome news. My 2 girls can't wait till Saturday night and we will be bringing a crowd. They love this team,

[1stTake]

Good news is GOOD, the Ladies have been through enough and deserve a championship.

[NewsCopy]

Ashley Blanche found it hard to sleep Monday night. That's to be expected when your senior season of college basketball hangs in the balance, when you're a few hours away from a second X-ray on your injured right arm and aren't sure if you've taken the court for the last time for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. "Did I sleep? Not really," Blanche said before Tuesday's practice at Earl K. Long Gym. "I guess I got about two hours. "This morning I was very nervous. I have five more games left, and it could all be over today." Once she got the X-ray, though, Blanche was relieved to be told that she could return to action. The hairline fracture requires a protective sleeve and caution, but not more rest. "I started feeling much better on Sunday," said Blanche, who was injured against Western Kentucky on Jan. 28 and missed last week's trip to North Texas and Denver. "I have more motion in the arm now. I can extend it. It's still sore in one spot. But the doctor said it wasn't fractured, so I'm good to go." As much as coach J. Kelley Hall wants his senior leader back in action, he remained cautious about Blanche's return. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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The chance to repeat as West Division champions in the Sun Belt Conference is slipping away from Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns, and at the moment they have no one to blame but themselves. Coach J. Kelley Hall's squad rallied from a lackluster first half that ended with South Alabama ahead 30-20, and even led 50-43 with less than three minutes remaining before 526 fans at Earl K. Long Gym on Thursday, but let it slip away. The visiting Jaguars scored the final 11 points of the night and escaped town with a 54-50 victory, improving to 12-10 and 6-4 in Sun Belt play while dropping UL to 15-8, 5-6. "Every time we got a lead, we went back down and did something dumb on defense," said senior guard Ashley Blanche, who gave the Cajuns 36 gritty minutes despite playing with a hairline fracture of her right arm. It was Blanche who put UL ahead 50-43 with her only successful 3-point bomb of the night with 3:13 to play, and she tallied the Cajuns' final 7 points of the contest. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[Turbine]

WHY?

It seems to me that long successful streaks are often followed by mini failure streaks.

I don't care if its a 40 game hitting streak for a baseball player or a 20 game home winning streak by the Lady Cajuns, it seems to me they almost always seem to be followed by a slump. 0-3 at home is not good.

We need the Lady Cajuns back to finish with a 4-game home winnning streak.

[NewsCopy]

J. Kelley Hall was still in shock, poring over the box score from Thursday's 54-50 home loss to South Alabama. It wasn't so much the verdict. USA and Hall's Louisiana Ragin' Cajun women have played games decided by 4, 3, 3, 1, 7 and 4 points in the last three years. Hall simply could not fathom how his squad could be so lifeless in the first half of a critical Sun Belt Conference game before 526 fans at Earl K. Long Gym. The Cajuns trailed 30-20 at the break, staged a furious rally to take a 50-43 lead and then let the visitors off the hook. If that doesn't change by 7 p.m. tonight against visiting Troy, it's going to be an unhappy Sun Belt Tournament in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "I don't understand their mentality," Hall said. "How can they come out and play like that at home in front of a packed house? "If they want to draw themselves into playing Middle Tennessee or Western Kentucky in the first round of the tournament, they're going to do it and it's going to be a short tournament. You don't just turn it on and say, 'Here we are.' It doesn't work like that. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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This time, Ashley Blanche might be down for the count. Saturday night's Sun Belt Conference game at Earl K. Long Gym between Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns and Troy University was not yet 3 minutes old when Blanche got wedged in a loose ball scramble and tumbled to the court clutching her right knee. The crowd of 394 fell silent as medical personnel moved to her side. Just last Tuesday, Blanche got clearance to return to action 12 days after suffering a hairline fracture of her right arm against Western Kentucky. She played last year's homestretch with stress fractures of her ankles as the Cajuns won the Sun Belt West Division, so she wasn't about to be sidelined by an arm injury. But this time, pending X-rays today, she might be finished. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns may have lost their heartbeat, but they still have a pulse in the Sun Belt Conference West Division race. The Cajuns saw senior point guard Ashley Blanche tumble to the Earl K. Long Gym court with a knee injury at the 17:10 mark of the first half, and soon trailed visiting Troy University 18-11. But they roared back with a 21-3 surge to grab a 32-21 halftime lead and held off the 3-point happy Trojans 70-59 to improve to 16-8 and 6-6 in league play. It was a survival game, and UL got a victory powered by 27 points and 14 rebounds from Yolanda Jones, 14 points and 11 boards from Sonora Edwards and 16 points including two key late layups by Jeanenne Colbert. After suffering 23 turnovers in Thursday's 54-50 loss to South Alabama, the Cajuns trimmed that to just 13 against Troy. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

When the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns left the court after Saturday night's 70-59 home win over Troy, they weren't sure they would see senior Ashley Blanche in uniform again for UL. The fearless point guard had collapsed in a heap with a knee injury less than three minutes into the contest and had to be carried off. "I just don't know what else can happen to this team," coach J. Kelley Hall said. But X-rays on Sunday revealed less damage than originally feared, and Blanche may not be done yet. Hall's squad hosts New Orleans on Thursday and has an open date on Saturday, so they could rest Blanche this week and hope to have her either to finish the regular season against Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock on Feb. 23 and 25, or for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament to follow. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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The Louisiana Lady Cajuns have shown the ability to kick it into overdrive at the right times, such as last Saturday when their breathtaking 21-3 scoring run closed the first half against Troy. That surge overcame an 18-11 deficit and gave coach J. Kelley Hall's team a 32-21 lead at halftime. And, if the Cajuns are up at the break, the record shows they're next to impossible to beat. "We ended the first half on a pretty good run," Hall said. "Then in the second half we pretty much played them equal." Troy matched UL's 38 points in the second half, but never could get closer than 5 points down the stretch as the Cajuns rolled to a crucial 70-59 Sun Belt Conference win. "One stat keeps popping up, and that is that we need to be ahead at halftime," Hall said. "When we are up, we've won our last 31 in a row." The Cajuns were 19-0 when leading at the half last year en route to a 22-9 record and a Sun Belt West Division crown, and are 12-0 this year. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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The Arkansas State Indians poured in 89 points in their Sunday contest at Western Kentucky, some 23 points over their season average, and still lost by 17 as WKU pumped in 106. Welcome to life in the East Division of the Sun Belt Conference, where Middle Tennessee and WKU rule with an iron fist with 10-2 league records. Over in the West, where Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns reside, it's more of an "anything can happen" picture. Coach J. Kelley Hall's squad enters the final week of the regular season with a 17-8 record and a 7-6 Sun Belt mark. UL is tied with North Texas (17-8, 7-6) one game behind South Alabama, which cruised past Troy 61-40 on Monday to improve to 14-11, 8-5. USA finishes at home with Denver and UNT. "We need to win our last two, and then whatever happens, happens," Hall said on Monday. "We had our chance to get some room on them (West rivals) and we didn't do that. But with all we've experienced this season, it's good to stay as close as we have. "We've known for the last four games that we had to win every game. Now we've got it down to two to go, and if we win both of them then I think the worst we can finish (in the West) is second." The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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Yolanda Jones was an All-American and a national champion playing for Trinity Valley Junior College, so she had the credentials to go to any number of universities to finish her collegiate eligibility. It may have surprised some when she opted to join coach J. Kelley Hall's Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, since the school had such a dreary history in women's basketball prior to his arrival, but she knew what she was doing. "I didn't want to go to a big school that always expected to win," Jones said. "I wanted to go someplace with no good history, then prove something. If everything changed, that could only help me more." UL was 22-9 and West Division champions of the Sun Belt Conference last season, reaching the finals of the conference tournament. But UL was 44-226 over the 10-year span of the 1990s. Now, with home games remaining at 4 p.m. today against Arkansas State and at 7 p.m. Saturday against Arkansas-Little Rock, the Cajuns are 17-8 and 7-6 in league play with a chance to repeat in the West. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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The University of Louisiana women's basketball team couldn't make a double-digit lead stand up in the final 12 minutes, as Arkansas State rallied for a 70-64 Sun Belt Conference victory over the Ragin' Cajuns Thursday at Long Gym. ASU used Cajun turnovers and accuracy at the free throw line to make up a 49-39 deficit with 11:25 left, after UL had led by as many as 17 points in the first half. Rudy Sims led the Lady Indians with 21 points while Jeanenne Colbert paced the Lady Cajuns with 19. The rest of the story

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This is not the way Ashley Blanche wanted it to end. Blanche hit the game-winning basket in last year's season finale as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajun women edged Arkansas State 66-64 to complete a perfect home campaign and clinch a first-ever Sun Belt Conference West Division title. They went on to reach the finals of the Sun Belt Tournament and finish 22-9, tying a school record for wins. But Blanche has had a rough home stretch as UL's leader. She suffered a hairline fracture of her right arm on Jan. 28 against Western Kentucky and missed 12 days. She came back for a 54-50 home loss to South Alabama, then lasted two minutes over Troy before suffering a hyper-extended right knee. Blanche managed 18 minutes off the bench on Thursday against Arkansas State, scoring 5 points as the Indians rallied to stun UL 70-64 and end their dreams of a repeat West crown. The Cajuns face Arkansas-Little Rock at 7 p.m. tonight at Earl K. Long Gym, and they need to regain their form in a hurry. It's the final home game for Blanche and co-senior Sherita Anderson. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com