University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
UAB
Cajuns Fall Short Against UAB In NIT
3/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – UAB's Eric Bush drained a 17-foot jumper with 11 seconds left in the game that provided the winning margin here Wednesday evening at the Bartow Arena as the Blazers held on to defeat Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball team 82-80 in the first round of the 2003 Owens Corning National Invitational Tournament.
UAB (20-12) advances to the second round and will play the winner of Siena and Western Michigan game next Monday or Tuesday at a site to be determined.
Louisiana-Lafayette (20-10) concludes it 2002-03 season with its third straight loss and second straight opening round loss in the NIT. It marked the first time all season that the Cajuns dropped three straight games. It also marked the end of four seniors' careers – Kenneth Lawrence, Anthony Johnson, Khadim Kandji and Immanuel Washington.
The Cajuns had a chance to tie the game or pull even but a Kenneth Lawrence pass went astray and landed out of bounds and the ball was given back to the Cajuns with three seconds remaining. However, UAB's Brandon Tobias was hit with a technical foul, giving the Cajuns two free throws and the ball back.
Brad Boyd would convert the first free throw to trim the lead to 82-80. Boyd, though, would miss the second freebie.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, the Cajuns were unable to field the ball cleanly and the clock expired giving the Blazers the win in a highly physical and tightly contested matchup.
“I'm proud of the team and extremely proud of the effort they showed out there tonight,” said sixth-year head coach Jessie Evans. “In a situation like this one (play at the end) you have got to make plays even in that situation. I just felt that we didn't.”
“Anytime that you shoot 53 percent at the free throw line it's going to be very difficult for you to get the job done,” Evans noted. “We have to shoot a better percentage in situations like these.”
Boyd led all Cajuns and all players in the game with 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting (5-for-13 from three-point range). Johnson (18 points), Laurie Bridges (11 points), Michael Southall (10 points) and Cedric Williams (10 points) all joined Boyd in double figures for the Cajuns.
UAB was led by Gabe Kennedy's 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Morris Finley chipped in with 17 and Bush had 15 as the Blazers put three players in double figures. Finley was 3-of-8 from three-point range with all three of his three-pointers opening the second half and scoring UAB's first nine points of the half.
UL Lafayette ended the night 14-of-26 from the charity stripe for a 54 percent clip – a stat which would come back to haunt them. After hitting 75 percent of their freebies in the first half, the Ragin' Cajuns made only 8-of-18 in the second half (44 percent).
UAB on the other hand just wouldn't miss from the free throw line, making 19-of-23 attempts (83 percent) and was a perfect 11-for-11 in the second half.
Finley's three-pointers to open the second half staked the Blazers out to a 47-40 lead with 18:14 in the second half. The Blazers would up the lead to 51-43 before the Cajuns made a rally.
UL Lafayette would use its second 11-0 run of the game over the next four-plus minutes to turn a 53-47 deficit into a 58-53 lead with 13:51 left in the game.
The game went back-and-forth after that with UAB regaining the lead at 69-68 on a free throw by Kennedy.
Cedric Williams would give the Cajuns their final lead of the night on a layup at 5:17. Bush gave the Blazers the lead back for good with a jumper that made it 71-70 with 5:00 remaining.
The Cajuns would tie the game at 73-73 on a pair of free throws by Boyd after Immanuel Washington went down hard on a foul after he was fouled going up for a slam dunk. Washington received a cut in his left eyebrow and had numbness in his left arm. He was wheeled off on a stretcher and taken to a hospital for precautionary measures.
After the media timeout, Bush made his only three-point basket of the night to put UAB back on top at 76-73. Bush made it five straight points on the next trip down the floor and UAB led 78-73 with 2:08 left to play in the game.
The first half of the game would set the tone for the evening.
After a slow start for both teams coming out of the gate, the pace picked up speed dramatically toward the midpoint of the second half.
UL Lafayette made the first move of the half, using an 11-0 spurt to turn a 16-13 deficit into a 24-16 lead with 8:39 left in the opening half.
Laurie Bridges gave the Cajuns the lead at 17-16 with a putback off a missed Brad Boyd three-pointer at 10:19. After back-to-back steals by the Cajuns, layups by both Bridges and Boyd increased the Cajuns lead to 21-16 and forced Blazers head coach Mike Anderson to burn a timeout.
A Bridges three-pointer at 8:39 made it 24-16 and capped off the 11-0 run.
UAB's Gabe Kennedy put an end to the Cajuns run and reeled of the next five points of the contest to pull the Blazers within three points at 7:53. UL Lafayette would then use a five-run burst of its own to increase its game-high lead back to eight points at 29-21.
The Blazers would then respond with a 16-2 run over the next four-plus minutes to take a 37-31 lead with 3:13 remaining before intermission. UL Lafayette clawed its way back into the game at halftime using a 6-1 run to end the final three minutes of the first half and trim the UAB lead to 38-37.
Louisiana-Lafayette ends the season with its third 20-win season in the last four years and third postseason appearance in the last four years.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
