Cajuns grab sweep over Georgia Southern

STATESBORO, Ga. – Trailing 12-2 to open the game, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns held the Georgia Southern Eagles to 27 points over the last 35:18 to come away victorious, 56-39 Thursday afternoon at the Hanner Fieldhouse.

Fourth-year head coach Garry Brodhead picked up his 58th career victory at Louisiana, moving into sole possession of second place on the program's all-time wins list. (Ross Cook – 57).

The 39 points was the lowest total for a conference opponent since Feb. 28, 2015 when the Cajuns (11-3, 4-1 SBC) limited the same Georgia Southern team to 35 points at the Cajundome.

"We started really slow and struggled offensively and also on the defensive side as well to start the game," Brodhead said. "In the second half we played with a little more urgency. I thought Bre [Breionne Cooper] did a great job on the boards and Kia [Wilridge] ran the floor well and got us going [offensively]."

Louisiana shot 45.3% (24-of-53) from the floor and outrebounded the Eagles, 38-28.

Senior Kia Wilridge led all scorers with 17 points, while junior Jaylyn Gordon chipped in 15 points to go with three assists and three steals. Freshman Breionne Cooper picked up eight points and a career-high 13 rebounds in 31 minutes.

After falling behind, 12-2 at the 4:42 mark of the first quarter, the Cajuns slowly chipped away at the Georgia Southern lead. Three consecutive made free throws and three pointers by senior Keke Veal and Gordon helped close the gap to 14-10 with 1:11 remaining in the opening quarter.

Midway through the second quarter, the Cajuns closed to within two points after back-to-back jumpers by sophomore Jodi Quinn and Cooper. After trading buckets, senior Brooklyn Arceneaux and Veal both deposited a free throw each to give the Cajuns their first lead of the game at 23-22 with 2:34 on the clock.

Gordon provided a three-point lead before the intermission, splashing a jumper with 36 seconds left.

The second quarter saw Louisiana outscore Georgia Southern, 12-0 in the paint.

The Ragin' Cajuns never relinquished the lead for the remainder of the game. They received points from five different players in the third quarter (Veal, Cooper, Arceneaux, Wilridge, Gordon), and carried a 36-33 lead into the fourth quarter.

Georgia Southern cut the deficit to one point twice in the fourth quarter. Ashley Burke opened the fourth with a layup to make it 36-35. After layup by Veal, Trell English-Lurry buried a jumper to cut the lead to 38-37.

The one-point gap was as close as the Cajuns let the Eagles come to tying to the game. Wilridge hit three of the Cajuns next four shots to build the lead back to eight at 47-39 with 2:50 left in the game.

The final nine points of the game belonged to the Cajuns, who won their fourth road game of the 2015-16 season.

Veal's 27-game streak of double-digit points came to an end, as she finished with nine points to go with four assists and a blocked shot.

Louisiana concludes their four-game road trip with a visit to Georgia State this Saturday, Jan. 16. Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. CST.

ULL 74, GSU 65
STATESBORO, Ga. – Shawn Long posted his 10th double-double of the season – and 62nd of his career – scoring a game-high 23 points and grabbing a season-best 17 rebounds to lead the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns to a 74-65 win over Georgia Southern in a Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball game on Thursday at Hanner Fieldhouse.

Steven Wronkoski added a season-high 10 points while Kasey Shepherd came off the bench to score nine as Louisiana (6-8, 2-3 SBC) used an 18-6 run in the second half to pull away and earn its first road win of the season.

Louisiana, which finished 29-for-62 (46.8 percent) from the floor, never trailed after Hayward Register drilled a 3-pointer with 5:19 remaining in the first half that gave the Ragin’ Cajuns a 32-29 lead. The Ragin’ Cajuns held Georgia Southern (5-10, 1-4 SBC) to 23-for-64 from the floor (35.9 percent), including 9-for-34 (26.5 percent) in the second half. Louisiana, which was aided by six 3-pointers in the first half, held the Eagles to 1-for-14 aim from behind the 3-point line and 0-for-9 in the second half.

“Our defense in the first half was not as good as it needed to be; it was from behind the 3-point line,” head coach Bob Marlin said. “We did a good job in defending the three. They (Georgia Southern) shoot 28 (3-point attempts) per game and we hold them to 1-for-14. They did get some layups and made some tough shots too in the first half.

“In the second half, I thought we did a really good job in defending … similar to Arkansas State. We got off to a great defensive start out of the gate and didn’t let them (GSU) score for a little bit; they only had five points for about six or seven minutes. And we built a lead and were able to hang on.”

Long, who became the first player in Ragin’ Cajuns and Sun Belt history to record 1,200 rebounds in a career, finished 10-for-13 from the floor while adding three steals and a pair of blocked shots. The 6-foot-11 senior scored 13 points in the first half, including eight straight points in the first half as Louisiana built a 21-18 lead with 9:55 remaining.

The Ragin’ Cajuns pushed their lead to 29-22 when Wronkoski drained a 3-pointer, but Georgia Southern came back with a 7-0 run that was capped by Jake Allsmiller’s 3-pointer with 5:32 remaining in the first half.

Louisiana responded with consecutive 3-pointers by Register and Shepherd for a 35-29 lead and the Ragin’ Cajuns would take a 38-35 lead at halftime when Shepherd scored on a jumper at the buzzer.

After Mike Hughes hit a free throw that cut the Georgia Southern deficit to 38-36, Louisiana scored the next 10 points as Bryce Washington and Wronkoski scored on layups, Jay Wright hit a short jumper and Long connected on a pair of buckets for a 48-36 lead with 14:59 remaining.

Louisiana built a 16-point lead, the last coming on a Devonta Walker dunk with 7:38 remaining, before Georgia Southern chipped away at the lead. The Eagles got as close as 68-61 on a pair of free throws by Hughes with 1:33 remaining, but the Ragin’ Cajuns closed out the game going 6-fof-6 from the free throw line, including four by Johnathan Stove in the final 40 seconds.

Tookie Brown scored 20 points to lead Georgia Southern with Hughes adding 14 and Shawn O’Connell 10. Coye Simmons grabbed 10 rebounds for the Eagles, which was outrebounded by the Ragin’ Cajuns, 46-37.

Stove dished out a career-high tying five assists for Louisiana while Wright – a native of nearby Rincon, Ga. – adding eight points, four rebounds and three assists.