LSUA’s cold shooting night too much to overcome in loss to ULL
LAFAYETTE– Cold shooting from the LSUA men’s basketball team proved too much to overcome, as it fell in an exhibition contest to ULL 90-75 on Tuesday night at the Cajundome.
LSUA (7-2) shot just 33.8 percent, including just 26.3 percent in the first half.
“ULL has a big and talented roster,” Men’s Basketball Coach Larry Cordaro said. “This game will only help us moving forward. While we were disappointed we didn’t win the game, I was proud of the fact we won the second half.”
The Generals endured a near nine-minute scoring drought, which saw the Ragin’ Cajuns grow the lead from 10-7 to 30-16. Jalen Perkins ended the dry spell with a layup, ending the 20-9 run. The basket was two of his team-high 16 on the night.
Twelve of Perkins’ 16 came in the first half and shot 8-of-15 from the field overall.
ULL (3-1) scored the game’s first six points on back-to-back 3-pointers by Mylik Wilson and Dou Gueye, and never looked back.
Wilson poured in 15 for the Ragin’ Cajuns on 7-of-16 shooting. He also grabbed seven rebounds and dished out a game-high six assists.
The Generals tried to crawl back in the game with an 8-0 run to cut it to 30-22, but back-to-back triples stemmed the tide.
Free throws helped LSUA stay in the game in the first half, making 14-of-16, in the first half, despite shooting less than 27 percent from the field. The Generals also forced 10 Ragin’ Cajuns turnovers.
“I always talk about three things: rebounds, free throws and turnovers,” Cordaro said. “It was not our night with rebounds. But we shot 89.5 percent from the free throw line and had eight turnovers. You are going to win a lot of basketball games doing that.
“Despite the outcome, there were a lot of positives from this game.”
The Ragin’ Cajuns finished the half making their last five baskets. After a Perkins jumper cut it to 38-30, ULL made its final five, including three consecutive 3-pointers by Devin Butts.
Coming into the game, Butts averaged 3.7 points per game, but he scored 16 in the first half alone on 6-of-8 shooting and 4-of-5 from deep. He finished with 18, one shy of the team lead.
ULL kept LSUA at arm’s length throughout the second half, as the lead never fell below 16 until less than a minute left in the game.
Freshman Jakemin Abney scored 12 points, all in the second half, after scoring 19 against Stephen F. Austin this past Sunday.
Jordan Adebutu and Joe Lewis also hit double figures, with each adding 10 points. Lewis also added seven rebounds before fouling out.
Casey Smith filled the stat sheet with seven points, five rebounds and five assists.
ULL dominated the glass, finishing with 68 rebounds, compared to 35 for LSUA.
Cedric Russell led the Ragin’ Cajuns with 19 points, while shooting 7-of-19 from the floor. The Generals held ULL leading scorer Theo Akwuba to two points on 1-of-3 shooting, but he grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked four shots.
Gueye finished with a double-double for ULL, finishing with 15 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
The Generals wrap up the non-conference schedule this Saturday at The Fort against Southeastern Baptist. The contest begins at 2 p.m.
