University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
New Orleans
Cajuns Withstand Privateers Rally
1/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2003
NEW ORLEANS – Anthony Johnson scored a game-high 24 points and sank 15 free throws including five in the final 16 seconds as Louisiana-Lafayette's Ragin' Cajuns held off a furious second-half comeback by New Orleans to post a 78-71 road, Sun Belt conference victory over the homestanding Privateers here Saturday evening at the Kiefer UNO Lakefront Arena in front of a boisterous crowd of 3,283.
The win pulled the Ragin' Cajuns (10-5, 2-1 Sun Belt) into a first-place tie in the Sun Belt West Division with the Privateers (9-5, 2-1 Sun Belt) and was their first conference road win of the season as the Cajuns split their weekend series with South Alabama and UNO. It also brought to an end UNO's 12-game regular season home win streak at the Lakefront and gave UNO its first home loss of the season.
Louisiana-Lafayette won for the 10th time in the last 13 games in the in-state rivals' series and for the third time in the last four games in the Lakefront Arena. UNO now leads the all-time series 29-25.
Johnson scored the Cajuns final five points, all from the line, after the Privateers had closed to two points at 73-71 with 18 seconds remaining. Johnson was fouled after the inbounds pass and sank both free throws to put the Cajuns up 75-71with 16 seconds remaining in the game.
The Privateers then marched down the court hoping to keep the pressure on the Cajuns, however Billy McDade lost control of a pass out of bounds turning the ball back over to the Cajuns. The UNO bench was then whistled for a technical foul following the change of possession.
Johnson would then follow with three free throws to put the Cajuns in front 78-71 with 11 seconds remaining. UNO missed its final two three-point attempts as time expired.
UL Lafayette had led by as many as 14, 46-32, in the second half. UNO used a 22-12 run to pull within 58-54 with 4:12 left to play.
Johnson led all Cajuns with 24 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 15-of-18 from the free throw line. Cedric Williams tacked on 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Laurie Bridges scored 10 as UL Lafayette placed three players in double figure scoring.
Louisiana-Lafayette shot 22-for-48 from the floor in the game and 30-of-41 (73.2 percent) from the free throw line. The Cajuns made 26-of-35 free throws in the second half.
UNO was led by Victor Brown and Johnell Smith who each scored 15 points. The Privateers shot 25-for-61 from the floor and were 15-of-24 from the free throw line.
The game was scoreless for the first four minutes until a Michael Southall slam-dunk basket assisted by Kenneth Lawrence at 15:57. Southall was fouled by UNO's Hector Romero on the slam but missed the free throw on the three-point conversion attempt.
UL Lafayette held on to the 2-0 lead at the first media timeout with 15:00 remaining in the first half. The Cajuns pushed the early lead to 4-0 with another Southall slam, this time a one-handed one as he was driving the lane at 14:41
Eight seconds later, Romero got the Privateers on the board with a dunk on the ensuing possession on a feed from Johnell Smith.
After UNO had taken a 9-8 lead on a Victor Brown basket with 11:41 left in the opening stanza, Louisiana-Lafayette used a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to forge a 17-9 advantage at 9:43. Back-to-back layups from Chris Cameron, an unconventional three-point play from Laurie Bridges and an Anthony Johnson layup provided the Cajuns spark.
UNO would cut the lead to four points (17-13) and then two at 22-20 with 4:37 left in the first half after Louisiana-Lafayette used a 5-2 run to open a seven-point lead 22-15.
The Cajuns defense put the clamps on the rest of the half, holding UNO scoreless for the remainder of the first half after a Kentrell Martin free throw at 4:37 cut the lead to two points. UL Lafayette ended the half on a 10-0 run to provide a 32-20 cushion at halftime.
Bridges, Johnson and Immanuel Washington each had six in the first half to lead the Ragin' Cajuns. Chris Cameron, Southall and Cedric Williams each had four to give UL Lafayette a balanced scoring attack in the opening frame.
The Cajuns forced 10 UNO turnovers and had nine steals. UL Lafayette outrebounded UNO 20-13 including 6-1 on the offensive boards, shot 13-for-30 (43.3 percent) to 8-of-22 (36.4 percent) for the Privateers.
Brown led UNO with seven points off the bench and 2002 Sun Belt Player of the Year Romero was limited to just two points and played only 10 minutes due to foul trouble.
Louisiana-Lafayette will next travel to Providence for a game with the Big East-member Friars on Wednesday, Jan.15 with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (CST). The game will be the Cajuns final non-conference one of the regular season.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
