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

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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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[Turbine]

I can go into detail if you don't get mmy drift but here is my take on the team so far this year.

If you pull a piece of the puzzle (lose a player) out, it is no big deal the Cajuns win.

If you try to put the same piece back in, the Cajuns struggle and lose.

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Dan McDonald
Posted on January 10, 2003
MOBILE, Ala. - Sun Belt Conference basketball games often come down to one shot.

Not normally, though, are those shots bank-in three-pointers.

South Alabama's Chris Young was the beneficiary of that friendly carom, and it was his trey with 1:06 left that turned the tide in favor of the host Jaguars and snapped the longest losing streak in the league.

UL Lafayette's favored Ragin' Cajuns never recovered in that closing minute, and USA held on for a 93-89 victory that gave the Jaguars their first conference victory in over a calendar year.

"I heard him call the bank,' said USA first-year head coach John Pelphrey, "so it counts.'

The Jaguars (7-6, 1-1) inbounded the ball in front of their own bench with 1:12 left and with eight seconds on the shot clock. Young took a pass from Henry Williams and lofted a prayer over two Cajun defenders that kissed off the glass and hit home to turn an 81-80 lead into a four-point advantage.

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South Alabama tops UL with strong second half

MOBILE, Ala. -- South Alabama outscored Louisiana 54-41 in the second half and the Jaguars placed all five starters in double figures to post a 93-89 win over the Ragin' Cajuns Thursday night at the Mitchell Center in Sun Belt Conference men's basketball action.
USA guard Demetrice Williams sank seven-of-eight free throws down the stretch as the Jaguars held off a late comeback Louisiana-Lafayette, according to a university news release.

Williams scored the Jaguars' final five points as USA had an answer for each time the Cajuns sank a shot in the final seconds.

The Jaguars opened the second half with a 21-8 run that propelled them into a 60-56 lead at the 11:36 mark. The Jaguars tied the game at 55-55 on a Henry Williams tip-in and took the lead, 57-55, for good at 12:32 on a wide-open dunk by Malerick Bedden.

USA opened up six-point advantages at 69-63 and 76-70 only to see the Cajuns claw back to within one point.

The Cajuns cut into the Jaguar lead 69-68 with a Brad Boyd 3-pointer and Kenneth Lawrence layup. However, a 3-pointer from USA's Chris Young broke the Cajuns momentum and the Jaguars pulled out to another six-point lead.

Louisiana trimmed the lead 81-80 on a Michael Southall free throw, but another Young 3-pointer, this one banked off the backboard, broke the Cajuns momentum and gave USA an 84-80 lead with 1:06 left to play.

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Advertiser-Dan McDonald
NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana basketball coach Jessie Evans knows his team could have claimed a hard-to-get Sun Belt Conference road victory on Thursday night.

The Ragin' Cajuns get another chance tonight, but it won't be any easier.

In fact, when the Cajuns travel down I-10 to take on the Privateers of New Orleans, they'll be facing the hottest team in the league.

UNO (9-4, 2-0) posted a 65-55 home win over New Mexico State on Thursday, putting the Privateers atop the Sun Belt's West Division, and the Cajuns will be trying to keep pace when the clubs renew their rivalry at 7 p.m. at Lakefront Arena.

The Cajuns (9-5, 1-1) dropped a 93-89 decision to South Alabama on Thursday after leading by nine points at halftime.

"We let one get away tonight," Evans said after the host Jaguars (7-6, 1-1) shot almost 57 percent from the field in the second half and committed only six turnovers the entire game. "It was always a one or two possession game, and I always thought we were going to make a play."

The Cajuns never regained the lead in the final 12 minutes, though, and now face the prospects of falling near the bottom of the early-season West race unless they can claim their first conference road victory.

That's a daunting task. The Privateers beat South Alabama 70-61 last Saturday, and tonight's game will be UNO's third straight conference game at home. The Privateers currently hold a 12-game home winning streak after Thursday's win over the Aggies, one in which UNO clamped down defensively.

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[NOCajun]

LOUISIANA'S RAGIN' CAJUNS won another barn-burner game against the UNO Privateers 78-71 at the Lakefront Arena in front of their largest crowd of the season. Major stats for the CAJUNS tonight included Anthony Johnson going 15-18 from the foul line and the CAJUNS out-rebounding UNO by their worst margin of the season (43 to 29 [I believe]). The CAJUNS had as much as a 15-point lead in the second half and were never behind in the game.

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Advertiser-Bruce Brown

NEW ORLEANS - Sometimes, a team has to pull together when things get challenging.

Louisiana's short-handed Ragin' Cajuns did just that Saturday night at Lakefront Arena, using 24 clutch points from Anthony Johnson to earn a 78-71 Sun Belt Conference victory over the UNO Privateers.

The Cajuns played without leading scorer Brad Boyd, who was seriously injured in an automobile accident on I-49 Friday night and remained in Lafayette.

They played without center Michael Southall for the last 4:46 of the contest when he was called for his fifth foul.

But they played with determination before a crowd of 3,283 that was clad largely in red in support of their effort.

"It was an important road win, because they were in first place and we're trying to get back to first after losing to South Alabama on Thursday," Johnson said. "It was very important to win this one on the road."

Johnson made sure that happened, hitting 15-of-18 free throws including 11 in crunch time after the Privateers had closed to within 60-54.

"I felt comfortable with the ball in my hands down the stretch," Johnson said. "I'm a senior, and I wanted to step up and make big plays like tonight."

The Cajuns, who improved to 10-5 overall and 2-1 in the Sun Belt, got a call from Boyd just before taking the court. Only then did they discover that a vehicle he was riding in on the way to Opelousas had flipped as the driver tried to avoid a car coming the wrong way on the Interstate.

"He's pretty badly shaken up," coach Jessie Evans said. "They took X-rays, and I don't think he has any internal injuries. When he called, he sounded like he was hurting. But he wanted us to know he was thinking about us.

"Our locker room was quiet before the game. It's not usually quiet."

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