University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Little Rock
Cajuns End Regular Season With Tough Loss at Ark.-Little Rock
2/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005
LITTLE ROCK – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns fell in heart-breaking fashion Saturday afternoon by a final score of 64-63 at Arkansas-Little Rock.
Darius Eason's lay-up with 0.2 seconds remaining proved to be the game-winner.
Foul trouble again haunted the Cajuns, who were tagged with 50 fouls over their last two games.
Louisiana (17-10, 11-4) had 23 fouls to just 14 by Arkansas-Little Rock (18-9, 10-4). UL went to the line just five times in the game and zero times in the second half, while the Trojans stepped to the stripe 21 times. In addition, UALR was called for a foul just once in the game's final 9:20, while the Cajuns were charged with seven fouls during that span.
Orien Greene was called for his third foul with 4:49 to play in the first half and Tiras Wade was whistled for his third with 1:05 left in the first stanza. Chris Cameron was hit with his third foul just 48 seconds into the second half.
Despite the personal fouls, Louisiana played tough and inspired defense in the second half.
A quick basket by the hosts put UALR up seven to begin the second half.
After the teams traded baskets, Louisiana went on an 18-0 run to take a 50-39 lead at the 15:08 mark.
Greene started things with a three-pointer and was followed by a triple from Cameron. Two baskets from Brian Hamilton preceded a triple from Wade. Greene then hit another three before Hamilton capped the run with a short jumper.
As he did in the first half, UALR's Brandon Freeman ignited the crowd and sparked a scoring burst by the Trojans. Freeman scored six points on the Trojans 8-2 run which cut the Cajuns lead to 52-47 at the midway point of the second half.
Greene and Wade answered with baskets to regroup the Cajuns.
The Cajuns lead grew to 10 points, 59-49, with 5:26 to play after a three-pointer by Wade.
From there things would spin downward for the Cajuns.
UALR would go on a 9-0 run to trim the Cajuns lead to 59-58 Greene collected two fouls in a 32-second span and fouled out at the 4:17 mark.
Leading 59-58, Wade converted to give the Cajuns a three-point cushion before a fast-break dunk by Ross Mouton upped UL's lead to 63-58 with 2:25 to play.
The Trojans used a basket and a pair of free throws from Zack Wright to get back to a one-point deficit with 59.1 seconds remaining.
Good defense forced a long three-point attempt by Cameron with the shot clock set to expire. UALR called timeout to draw-up the winning play.
Wade led the Cajuns with 22 points and six rebounds. Hamilton was the only other player in double figures, finishing the night with 12 points.
The Trojans had three players in double figures, led by 25 points from Freeman.
The Cajuns early cold shooting put the team behind 10-6 in the first six minutes. Four turnovers and 2-of-7 from the floor was the cause of the Cajuns struggles.
Three triples from Freeman put the Trojans up 13-7 at the 11:54 mark. Freeman's fourth triple extended the UALR advantage to 16-9 with less than 11 minutes to play in the first half.
A 9-2 Cajuns run tied the game at 18-18. Hamilton scored inside before three straight field goals by Wade knotted the game with 6:31 remaining in the half.
The Trojans came back with a short 6-2 spurt to take a four-point lead, but a three-point play by Adam James pulled the Cajuns within one point.
UALR's lead went back to four on Freeman's fifth three-pointer of the first half. He then added a pair of free throws to boost the hosts lead to 31-25 at the 2:34 mark.
After a Dwayne Mitchell three-pointer cut the Cajuns deficit to three, Wright hit a pair from stripe with no time remaining in the first half to give UALR a five-point lead at the break.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
