The Book: 2002-2003 Basketball (Ragin'Cajuns)

[Turbine]

Alumni Band member take a well deserved break.

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ADVOCATE-BOBBY ARDOIN

LAFAYETTE -- The way guard Laurie Bridges sees it, everyone is a potential starter on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette basketball team.

Bridges certainly made that evident at the Cajundome Thursday night. Starting for the third time this season, Bridges scored 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds for ULL, which defeated New Mexico State 81-74 in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams.

With an injury sidelining starting forward Anthony Johnson, the Cajuns began the game with a three-guard lineup. Bridges wanted to provide a spark.


"This team is deep with players," the junior from New Orleans said. "When one of them goes out, the other can step up."

The win was No. 100 at ULL for Cajuns' coach Jessie Evans, who began coaching the Cajuns in 1997.

ULL's victory -- the eighth in 12 games this season -- also established a Cajundome record of 15 straight victories dating back to Nov. 24, 2001.

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[NOCajun]

Thank you so much for posting the Alumni Band pictures!! We had a BLAST playing last night!!!

By the way, you wouldn't happen to have anymore, would you??

[Turbine]

LOUISIANA

Houston, TX

HOUSTON

72 56 Cedric Williams experiences wishes at Homecoming

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Advertisers-Dan McDonald

HOUSTON - Jessie Evans probably would take a Sun Belt Conference win over a career milestone, but the Louisiana head coach got both on Thursday.

Now, the fifth Ragin' Cajun coach to garner 100 career victories will be in first place in the Sun Belt race for at least a week.

The Cajuns' 81-74 home win over New Mexico State on Thursday was the league's first action of the year, and marked the eighth straight season that the Cajuns have won their Sun Belt opener. Now, Evans' charges will sit back and watch the rest of the league knock heads for the next few days.

They won't exactly be relaxing, though, as the Cajuns (8-4, 1-0 Sun Belt) play a non-conference game tonight on the road at the University of Houston (2-7), kicking off a series of four straight road games. Before the current streak ends on Jan. 15 at Providence, the Cajuns will have played nine out of 10 games away from the Cajundome.

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[Cajun1997]

And you guys were great. Thanks for making it a real special game.

[NOCajun]

Originally posted by cajun67
And you guys were great. Thanks for making it a real special game.

...BELIEVE me!! I had the BEST time I've had at a UL basketball game in a long time, especially with the large crowd and the GREAT play from the CAJUNS!!!

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Houston Chronicle -JERRY WIZIG

Rebounding dominance, point-blank scoring key Cajuns' win

Spicy as Cajun cooking, Louisiana quickly shredded any thought of a home-court advantage by the Houston Cougars to score its first victory over UH in seven tries Saturday night at Hofheinz Pavilion.

The 72-56 outcome doesn't begin to show the Sun Belt Conference team's dominance. The Cajuns outrebounded UH by a 59-37 margin and overwhelmed the Cougars 50-18 in the paint while handing them their fifth straight loss and eighth in 10 games this season.

Louisiana's 28-14 edge in offensive rebounds was another major factor for the Cajuns (9-4).

"We'd get a stop, and they'd get two or three more opportunities to score," UH coach Ray McCallum said. "We couldn't get offensive rebounds, so we couldn't fast break, and we let them get behind our defense in transition, which was a big disappointment."

Four days after shooting just 27 percent in a 62-48 loss at Texas Tech, the Cougars hit only 25.9 percent (7-of-27) in the first half before settling at 34.5 for the night. They also missed 13 of 25 free throws.

Louis Truscott led UH with 17 points, and freshman Ramon Dyer was the only other Cougar in double figures with 10. Sophomore Cedric Williams, from North Shore, had 19 points and 11 rebounds for Louisiana.

Earlier this season, the Cajuns defeated then-No. 12 Mississippi State, and they won 68-47 at Charlotte, dealing the 49ers their lowest scoring total, worst shooting (26 percent) and most one-sided loss at Halton Arena. Last season, Louisiana, formerly known as Southwestern Louisiana, finished 20-11 after losing in the first round of the NIT.

UH trailed 35-19 at halftime, and things didn't get much better for the Cougars in the second half.

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Advertiser-Dan McDonald

HOUSTON - This is what Cedric Williams has had in mind for the last two years.

After sitting out last season for Louisiana's basketball squad, the sophomore forward from Houston-Northshore High wanted to make his homecoming a good one here Saturday night.

That he did.

"I had to,' he joked. "I had about 30 family members here.'

Playing in front of much of his family tree and many hometown friends, Willliams had a career-high both scoring and rebounding and was part of a dominating effort as the Ragin' Cajuns punished Houston's Cougars 72-56.

Williams finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, getting 12 points in the second half when the Cajuns (9-4) built a lead of as many as 28 points and made it look easy. He hit 9-of-16 shots and had eight offensive rebounds -- part of a season-high 28 offensive boards the Cajuns repossessed.

"That was huge,' said Cajun head coach Jessie Evans, who took his 101st career victory. "We were able to extend the floor and get some turnovers, and when we started doing that we felt pretty comfortable.'

Part of it may have been familiarity with Hofheinz Pavilion. Not from the Cajuns - who had never won in six tries in the building - but from Williams.

"I've been playing in here since about the seventh grade,' he said. "AAU ball, and some playoff games at Northshore.'

Whatever it was, it was effective ... and contagious.

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Advertiser-Dan McDonald

LAFAYETTE - South Alabama won its first two Sun Belt Conference basketball games last season, and then proceeded to lose 13 straight.

The Jaguars' only wins after December last year came over Georgia Southwestern and Bethune-Cookman.

Many USA fans may consider this year's 6-5 non-conference record a runaway success, but new coach John Pelphrey knows that it's league play that will make or break his squad.

And the Jags aren't exactly easing into the Sun Belt slate. USA (6-6, 0-1) fell to a much-improved New Orleans team by nine points, 70-61, on the road in its league opener Saturday, and will open its league home slate against the conference's other hot team when UL Lafayette visits Mobile on Thursday.

"We're going to find out where we're at in a hurry, and we may not like it," Pelphrey said. "You've got to play everybody anyway, but this is a great challenge. We played well at UNO, but they played better and deserved to win."

A win at New Orleans wasn't expected, but defending the home court is expected in the Sun Belt. That's what the Jaguars didn't do last year, and haven't done in the last two seasons when the Ragin' Cajuns have visited the Mitchell Center.

"We've been fortunate to win over there," said Cajun coach Jessie Evans, whose team will take a four-game win streak into its Thursday 7:05 p.m. league road opener. "We're looking forward to the test."

Evans' Cajuns will see a different South Alabama team this year, with the patient attack of previous squads replaced by a team averaging almost 80 points per game. Last season, the USA squad never scored more than 76 points in a regulation game.

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Advertiser-Dan McDonald /

MOBILE, Ala. - Louisiana's men's basketball team has won two straight games at South Alabama's Mitchell Center.

But that was against a Jaguar team that prided itself on slow-paced, low-scoring (read: dull) games, something that probably won't happen when the Ragin' Cajuns open their Sun Belt Conference road schedule tonight at 7:05 p.m. against the USA squad.

This is definitely not your father's Jaguar squad.

USA struggled to a 7-21 record last season, including a pair of losses to the Cajuns, and lost its last 13 Sun Belt games. New coach John Pelphrey has installed a high-pressure, high-intensity attack that has already produced dividends to the tune of a 6-6 record entering tonight's rivalry renewal.

"We have enough talent on this team, if we go out and play extremely hard, we can compete and beat anybody on our schedule," said Pelphrey. "We've shown that at times, but we haven't been able to do it consistently."

That will be the biggest challenge for the Jags against a Cajun squad that has found consistency over the past two weeks. UL (9-4, 1-0) enters tonight's game on a four-game win streak, including an 81-74 home win over New Mexico State last Thursday in its league opener.

Tonight's battle will be the first of seven Sun Belt road games, though.

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Advocate-BOBBY ARDOIN

LAFAYETTE -- The University of Louisiana men's basketball team has played only four of its 13 games this season at the Cajundome.

UL coach Jessie Evans said visitng so many different arenas will help the Cajuns during the Sun Belt Conference portion of the schedule.

The Cajuns (9-4, 1-0) are in the middle of another extended road trip at 7:05 p.m. today in Mobile, Ala., when ULL meets South Alabama in a SBC game set for The Mitchell Center.

The USA game is the second of a road swing which includes a 7 p.m. Saturday game at The University of New Orleans and a Wednesday night nonconference contest at Providence.

The Cajuns were 5-4 after participating in two holiday season tournaments in addition to playing at Mississippi State, McNeese State, Birmingham Southern and Houston.

"I think our schedule is going to be an advantage for us when we go on the road to play our conference games," Evans said.

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