University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Middle Tennessee
Defense Makes Strong Start Stand Down the Stretch, Cajuns Top MT for Sixth Straight Win
1/29/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005
Louisiana-Lafayette went cold from the field for the game's final 25 minutes, making just 5-of-30 field goal attempts (16.7 percent), but the defense stepped up and held the Blue Raiders to just 27 percent shooting for the entire game as the Ragin' Cajuns held on in the end for a 54-44 victory here Saturday at the Cajundome.
It was a relentless defensive effort in the game's first six minutes which helped Louisiana-Lafayette (12-7, 6-1 Sun Belt) build a 14-2 lead at 13:49. The Cajuns zone defense denied MT any decent chances from inside 15 feet and forced the Blue Raiders to go 1-of-8 from the floor to open the game.
Then when MT sliced the lead to 44-42 with 3:10 remaining it was the defense that came through at a critical juncture to force a key turnover that led to the Cajuns march to the free throw line to end the game.
MT head coach Kermit Davis called a timeout after the Blue Raiders forced Orien Greene into an off-balanced shot which he missed and Steve Thomas nabbed the loose ball.
The Blue Raiders (13-8, 3-4 Sun Belt) put the ball into the hands of Mike Dean in an attempt to put up a possible tying or go-ahead shot. However, as Dean began to penetrate inside the arc he slipped on the court and the ball rolled off the palm of his hand into the arms of Greene for the steal.
The Cajuns headed back the other way quickly looking for a quick score. Dwanye Mitchell missed an inside layup at 2:11. Brian Hamilton played the savior for the Cajuns as he grabbed the Mitchell miss and putback the offensive board for a basket that pushed the Cajuns lead at 46-42.
Hamilton's basket combined with the resurgence of a crowd of 6,133 re-energized the Cajuns defense which forced MT to misfire on five of its final six field goal tires during crunch time. From that point on, the Cajuns won the game at the charity stripe making 9-of-11 in the final 1:36 including a perfect 6-for-6 by Mitchell whom MT kept on fouling in hopes that the 50 percent free throw shooter would miss.
Back-to-back missed jumpers, one by Dean and another by Bryan Smithson, led to three freebies by Louisiana-Lafayette which stretched the lead to 49-42 with 1:16 remaining in the game.
The Cajuns had the ball with just under one minute remaining and the chance to run off more clock. Mitchell was controlling the ball near midcourt when he lost hold and Marcus Morrison grabbed the loose ball and raced in for an uncontested layup that trimmed the lead to 49-44.
MT was forced to foul from that point on and then misfired on its final three field goal attempts. The Cajuns scored their final eight points from the charity stripe and ended the game 20-for-26 from the charity stripe (76.9 percent).
With the win, Louisiana-Lafayette extended its season-high winning streak to six games. Combined with a Denver loss at New Orleans, the Cajuns pulled into a tie with the Pioneers for first place in the Sun Belt West Division heading into next week's anticipated showdown in Denver on Saturday, Feb. 5.
Louisiana-Lafayette won a Sun Belt game for the 25th time in the last 28 tires at the Cajundome and extended its winning streak over Sun Belt East Division teams to eight games.
Hamilton led the Cajuns with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting and scored the Cajuns final two baskets of the contest which came in the last 6:44 of the game. The Houston native ended the night with a double-double as he grabbed 13 rebounds to pick up his fifth double-double of the season.
The Blue Raiders defense was key in shutting down Louisiana-Lafayette leading scorer Tiras Wade. Wade scored a season-low 10 points and had only four points with 14 minutes left in the game.
Middle Tennessee received a game-high from Thomas who ended the game with 19 points. Through one half of play, Thomas had scored 10 of Middle Tennessee's 14 total points. Thomas grabbed 10 rebounds to complete a double-double.
The Cajuns defense held MT below 30 percent shooting in both halves. The Blue Raiders shot just 6-of-23 (26 percent) in the opening stanza and were 9-of-32 (28 percent) in the second half.
The Cajuns started out strong, making 12-of-18 field goals (66.7 percent) through the game's first 15 minutes and jumped out to a 24-9 advantage. Louisiana-Lafayette's shooting fortunes went south from that point on – the Cajuns missed their final five attempts of the half and endured a second half in which the squad shot an abysmal 19 percent.
The start of the second half featured an interesting twist. Neither team made a field goal until Thomas tapped in a lob pass from Fats Cuyler aty 14:57 to make it 28-21 Cajuns. Before the Thomas tap in, the first seven points of the second half combined were all converted from the charity stripe with MT making five and Louisiana-Lafayette two.
Wade ended a string of 14 consecutive Ragin' Cajuns misses when he nailed a 15-foot jumper at 13:56 to push the Cajuns lead to 30-21.
Middle Tennessee remained behind by as many as eight points, 40-32, with 7:26 left to play before a series of good shooting jumpstarted a 10-4 run that closed the gap to four points with three minutes remaining.
The Blue Raiders made 4-of-5 attempts over the next two minutes, including back-to-back makes on consecutive possessions, closing the Cajuns lead to 44-40 at 5:08.
A pair of freebies by Thomas at 3:10 closed the gap to 44-42.
After a defensive stop by MT, the Dean turnover woke up the Cajuns faithful and lifted the homestanding team to the victory.
Louisiana-Lafayette, winners of 64 of their last 84 Sun Belt games since the 1999-2000 season, will now take to the road for its next two outings. The Cajuns visit North Texas on Thursday, Feb. 3, for the beginning of a weekend road swing that ends Saturday, Feb. 5, at Denver. The Cajuns are 3-0 on the road this season in Sun Belt play and are a Sun Belt-best 14-4 on the road in Sun Belt outings since the 2002-03 season.
Box Score
Middle Tennessee at Louisiana-Lafayette
01/29/05 7:05 p.m. at Lafayette, La. (Cajundome)
MIDDLE TENNESSEE (13-8, 3-4 SBC)
Thomas, Steve 7-14 5-9 19; Cuffee, Michael 2-9 5-6 10;
Morrison, Marcus 2-6 0-0 4; Smithson, Bryan 1-5 2-2 4;
Cuyler, Fats 1-8 0-0 3; Dean, Mike 1-10 0-0 2; Young, Kyle
1-3 0-0 2; Weekes, Alex 0-0 0-0 0; Durrant, Wes 0-0 0-0 0.
Totals 15-55 12-17 44.
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE (12-7, 6-1 SBC) Hamilton, Brian 7-9 2-5
16; Mitchell, Dwayne 1-5 10-10 12; Wade, Tiras 4-14 2-3 10;
Cameron, Chris 3-6 1-2 7; Greene, Orien 2-14 1-2 5; James,
Adam 0-1 2-2 2; Ford, Spencer 0-3 2-2 2; Mouton, Ross 0-1
0-0 0. Totals 17-53 20-26 54.
Halftime Score: UL 26, MT 14. 3-point goals-MT2-15 (Cuffee 1-2; Cuyler 1-6; Smithson 0-2; Dean 0-3; Morrison 0-2), UL 0-16 (Wade 0-5; Cameron 0-2; Greene 0-5; Ford 0-3; Mouton 0-1). Fouled out - MT-Morrison, UL -None. Rebounds-MT 31 (Thomas 10), UL 45 (Hamilton 13). Assists-MT 8 (Smithson 3), UL 8 (Greene 4). Total fouls-MT 20, UL 15. A-6,133
-Ragin' Cajuns-
