CAJUNS LOSE HEARTBREAKER TO WILDCATS?Dec

12/28/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

CAJUNS LOSE HEARTBREAKER TO WILDCATS Dec. 28, 2001

?TEMPE, Ariz. – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns had one of its best rebounding efforts of the season in Friday's opener of the Arizona State Holiday Classic. The scoreboard, though, showed them a frustrating result.

?Northwestern's Drew Long hit a corner jumper with 8.8 seconds left to lift the Wildcats (8-2) to a 52-51 victory over the Cajuns (5-5) at Wells Fargo Arena.

?Winston Blake had 17 points and seven rebounds, while freshman Aaron Jennings added 14 points to lift the Big Ten member to a championship game appearance Saturday against the winner of host-ASU and Canisius.

?Anthony Johnson had 14 points and Darryl Robbins tallied 10 to lead the Cajuns. But it was certainly not the scoring totals that highlighted the Cajuns' night. Louisiana-Lafayette dominated the boards, especially in the second half. The Cajuns took the battle 46-33 and grabbed 18 offensive boards (16 in the second half).

?The early-season nemesis, though, showed its ugly face again. The Cajuns shot just 29 percent in the second half and 35 percent for the game.

?"The first half was a defensive struggle," said Evans, whose team held a 26-24 advantage at the break thanks to a solid defensive effort. "We worked really hard in practice on changing defenses, and the guys did a really good job of that. It is a game of spurts, though, and they had one more spurt than us, made one more play than us and that was the difference in the game."

?In the first half, the Cajuns had a 26-20 lead with just over two minutes left but was unable to dent the scoreboard further. Northwestern closed the gap to 26-24 and continued to hold the Cajuns scoreless for nearly six minutes into the second half.

?Once Louisiana-Lafayette did score, though, it went on a run of its own. The Cajuns went on a 13-0 spurt in just over two minutes. The effort erased a six-point deficit and gave the squad a 39-32 advantage with 11:51 to play.

?The Cajuns had a chance to stretch it even further but missed two open looks. Northwestern slowly crept back in – eventually taking a 40-39 lead after holding the Cajuns to another five-minute scoring drought.

?Neither team had a lead bigger than three in the final minutes. The Cajuns, who did not score in the final 2:05, still held a 51-50 lead after a Shea Whiting layup.

?But a crucial free throw miss gave the Wildcats a shot at victory and Long (eight points total) clinched it with a nine-footer just over the outstretched hands of a Cajun defender.

?Whiting did have his best outing of the early campaign. The Houston senior scored six points and had a career-best 11 rebounds. Kenneth Lawrence added seven boards (five offensive), and Boyd added eight assists.

?The Cajuns will try to bounce back at 6:30 p.m. Saturday against the loser of the late Friday ASU-Canisius tilt.

Louisiana- Lafayette vs Northwestern

OFFICIAL BASKETBALL BOX SCORE -- G A M E T O T A L S Louisiana- Lafayette vs Northwestern 12-28-01 6:00 PM at Ned Wulk Court -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Louisiana- Lafayette 5-5 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 32 ROBINS, Darryl f 5-7 0-0 0-0 1 4 5 1 10 0 1 1 2 24 34 JOHNSON, Anthony f 5-14 0-4 4-5 2 3 5 3 14 0 1 1 2 31 44 SOUTHALL, Michael c 0-4 0-0 3-4 1 2 3 4 3 1 2 1 0 28 04 Landry, Antoine g 1-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 8 05 Lawrence, Kenneth g 2-9 0-2 0-1 5 2 7 3 4 3 4 0 1 26 03 Boyd, Brad 2-8 2-7 2-4 1 4 5 0 8 8 2 0 1 30 13 WASHINGTON, Emanuel 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 21 BRIDGES, Laurie 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 2 2 1 3 0 1 18 31 JUPITER, Robert 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 33 WHITING, Shea 3-5 0-0 0-1 3 8 11 0 6 0 1 2 1 26 41 WILLIAMS, Chris 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 52 KANDJI, Khadim 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 TEAM ........................................ 3 2 5 1 TOTALS 20-56 2-15 9-15 18 28 46 14 51 13 18 5 8 200 TOT-FG 1stH: 10-22 45.5% 2ndH: 10-34 29.4% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 35.7% Deadbl 3pt-FG 1stH: 0-5 00.0% 2ndH: 2-10 20.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 13.3% Rebs FThrow 1stH: 6-9 66.7% 2ndH: 3-6 50.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 60.0% 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Northwestern 8-2 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 03 Blake, Winston f 6-16 5-13 0-0 1 6 7 3 17 5 3 0 1 40 33 Hardy, Tavaras f 4-10 0-2 0-2 1 3 4 3 8 2 2 1 0 30 55 Jennings, Aaron c 6-13 2-4 0-0 1 5 6 2 14 5 2 1 0 28 25 Young, Jitim g 1-5 1-2 0-0 3 1 4 3 3 1 4 1 0 29 32 Drayton, Collier g 0-1 0-0 2-2 3 3 6 1 2 3 1 0 2 28 11 Vukusic, Vedran 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 8 23 Long, Drew 3-8 2-6 0-0 0 2 2 1 8 1 0 1 0 25 30 Burke, Jason 0-1 0-1 0-1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 12 TEAM ........................................ 0 1 1 TOTALS 20-56 10-30 2-5 10 23 33 15 52 18 13 4 3 200 TOT-FG 1stH: 9-31 29.0% 2ndH: 11-25 44.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 35.7% Deadbl 3pt-FG 1stH: 4-15 26.7% 2ndH: 6-15 40.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 33.3% Rebs FThrow 1stH: 2-5 40.0% 2ndH: 0-0 00.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 40.0% 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OFFICIALS: Terry Chrisman, Ruban Ramos, Jim Giron TECHNICAL FOULS: Louisiana- Lafayette - none Northwestern - none ATTENDANCE: SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd OT1 OT2 OT3 OT4 TOTAL Louisiana- Lafayette 26 25 51 Northwestern 24 28 52 azcentral.com Hoops Classic Game 1