Lady Cajuns slip past South Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. – Brooklyn Arceneaux scored a career-high 19 points and Kia Wilridge picked up her first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, leading the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team past South Alabama, 65-60 at the Mitchell Center.

The Cajuns improved to 10-5 on the season, matching their win total from last season. The last time they won 10 games before January 20 was the NCAA Tournament season of 2006-07.

"I thought everybody from the starters to the bench played well," head coach Garry Brodhead said after the game. "The pressure got to [South Alabama]. Creating 30 turnovers is huge for us. It was a good game, our full court press created a lot of problems for them and made it a fun game for us."

Arceneaux stepped up in the place of Keke Veal who missed the second straight game with an injury. Adrienne Prejean joined in with Arceneaux and Wilridge, scoring a career-high 11 points.

"Playing with [Veal] for a while kind of woke [Arceneaux] up after [Veal's] injury," Brodhead said of Arceneaux's play. "She saw that we really needed her and she started to score and played very controlled for us. Scoring 19 points with seven rebounds in 34 minutes is huge for her.

"[Wilridge] pressured all over the floor for us," Brodhead added. "She is such a great athlete and has some heart. She played hard and very smart. She only had two turnovers and did a great job running the offense and keeping us in sync."

After a slow start to the game, with the Jaguars holding a 6-3 lead at the first media timeout, the game picked up its tempo and physicality. The Cajuns held off South Alabama for the first 20 minutes, going into the locker room with a 31-29 lead, despite picking up their 7th foul and sending South Alabama to the bonus with 9:18 left in the half.

The physicality didn't fade in the second half, with the Cajuns reaching double-bonus with 8:52 left in the game.

The game went back and forth with four lead changes in the first 12 minutes of the half.

South Alabama took a 42-41 lead with a pair of free throws from Rachel Cumbo with 9:57 left in the game, their final of the game.

The Cajuns tied the game up at 46-46 with 8:48 left in the game, following a 3-pointer from Sylvana Okde, her first points of the game. Robbie Brown stole the ball on the ensuing South Alabama possession, and dished the ball to Wilridge for the easy layup and a Cajuns lead.

That was part of an 11-0 run for the Cajuns over 1:56 span, giving the Cajuns a six-point lead.

The Jaguars didn't give up down the stretch. Breanna Hall hit a clutch 3-pointer with 28.6 seconds left in the game to make it a one-possession game at 63-60

With time on the Cajuns' side, the Jaguars were forced to foul Okde with 24.4 seconds left. Okde hit one-of-two to make it a two-possession game, and Kia Wilridge all but put the game out of reach after a defensive rebound with 10.8 left in the game.

The Cajuns defense was the difference of the game, forcing 30 turnovers, and scoring 27 points off of the turnover. The Cajuns full court press forced multiple turnovers on inbound passes, leading to uncontested layups.

"We like to press the court," Brodhead said. "We played more numbers tonight that did a better job. When we can pressure the court and get girls in is when we do a good job. It was huge for us to press the whole game and wear them down, taking them off their game. It was the key to the game for us, was pressure.

South Alabama was hurt by fouls in the second half, with leading scorer Ronneka Robertson seeing limited action before fouling out with under a minute to go. She finished the game with 15 points in 24 minutes.

"We are still building, and are a work in progress," Brodhead said of the ten wins. "We are not going to stop. They are young and all they know how to do is work. They showed their effort tonight with a complete game but it is still a work in progress."

The Cajuns will stay in Alabama for their next game, taking on Troy on Saturday at Trojan Arena. Tipoff is 5:15 p.m. in game one of a doubleheader with the men's teams. The Cajuns return to the Cajundome on Jan. 23 to take on Georgia State at 5 p.m.