University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Middle Tennessee
Cajuns Follow Pre-Game Keys to Success For Sun Belt Tournament Win over Middle Tennessee
3/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sunday, March 6, 2005
Louisiana-Lafayette was to have to limit its turnovers, rebound the ball and stay out of foul trouble if it were going to defeat Middle Tennessee.
The Ragin' Cajuns committed just 15 turnovers (only five in the second half), stayed away from foul trouble and outboarded the Blue Raiders 39-26 including a 13-7 edge on the offensive glass.
It was Middle Tennessee which saw its key players – Mike Dean, Steve Thomas and Michael Cuffee – all reach foul trouble and the Cajuns defense forced 19 MT turnovers (13 in the first half).
The end result was a 71-57 victory for Louisiana-Lafayette (18-10) which advanced to the semifinal round of the 2005 Aeropostale Sun Belt Conference Tournament – the program's sixth trip to the semifinal round in 14 appearances.
The Ragin' Cajuns will now meet Florida International at 9 p.m. (CST) in Monday's semifinal contest which will be aired live on ESPN Plus and carried by Cox Sports TV in the Lafayette viewing area (cable channel 27).
With the win, the team's 18th of the season, Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Robert Lee tied his former boss Jessie Evans for the most wins in a debut season. Evans also won 18 games in the 1997-98 season and advanced to the championship game of the 1998 Sun Belt Tournament.
Tiras Wade led all scorers with 27 points. Wade made 11-of-19 field goals and got the major portion of his scoring output off of his game-high six offensive rebounds. Wade dumped in 18 points in the second half after scoring just nine in the opening frame.
The Blue Raiders opened the game 4-of-5 from the field, but would make just 14 of their final 43 attempts and ended the game shooting just 37.5 percent.
The Cajuns defense did an excellent job of holding the Blue Raiders out of the paint as MT shot nearly half of its field goal attempts (23 out of a total 48) from beyond the arc.
Louisiana-Lafayette had a commanding 32-10 edge on points in the paint and held MT's Steve Thomas, who had 19 points and 10 boards in the regular season meeting in Lafayette, to two points and just four rebounds.
Middle Tennessee opened a 13-12 lead through the first five minutes of the contest with its hot three-point shooting. The Blue Raiders made their first four triples getting three from Fats Cuyler and one from Mike Dean.
It was a tip-in by Michael Cuffee of a missed three-point attempt by Dean at 13:14 that gave MT its final lead of the opening stanza at 15-14. On the Cajuns first possession following the 11-minute media timeout, Orien Greene knocked down a triple to put Louisiana-Lafayette up 17-15.
MT opened the contest shooting 4-of-5 from the floor, but could only connect on 4-of-18 for the rest of the half. The Blue Raiders also committed 11 turnovers in the final 13 minutes as the Ragin' Cajuns used a 19-9 surge to take a 33-24 lead at intermission.
Greene's three-point basket at 11:36 triggered an 8-0 run that vaulted the Cajuns to a 22-15 lead with eight minutes left before halftime.
The Cajuns' defense did an excellent job of denying the Blue Raiders any decent chances inside and kept Steve Thomas off the scoreboard. The defense locked down after a Mike Dean three-pointer at the 6:00 mark cut the Cajuns lead to 22-18. As a result, the Cajuns reeled off nine unanswered points to take their largest lead of the half 31-18 with 2:21 left to play.
A pair of inside baskets by Bryan Smithson and two free throws allowed the Blue Raiders to work the deficit back to single digits at the half.
A pair of Chris Cameron free throws at the 19:06 mark of the second half began the second stanza for Louisiana-Lafayette. Cameron's freebies gave the Cajuns the double-digit lead back at 35-24.
The Cajuns never lost the double-digit lead with the closest the Blue Raiders getting back in the game as 10 points at 35-25 and 37-27. After a pair of Cuffee free throws at 17:28 trimmed the Cajuns lead to 37-27, the Cajuns rolled off six unanswered points to open a 16-point advantage at 43-27 with 15:18 left to play.
Each time MT would threaten to get back into the game, Wade was there to answer for the Cajuns.
After a Dean three-pointer with nine minutes left to play pulled the Blue Raiders to a 53-41 deficit, Wade was in the perfect spot on a missed jumper by Hamilton for an easy put back. Wade drew a foul from Dean and converted the three-point play to push the lead to 56-41.
Wade had another triple at 5:43 that allowed the Cajuns to equal their largest lead of the game at 64-46.
The Blue Raiders chopped the Cajuns lead down to 10 points at 64-54 with less than two minutes remaining. It was Wade once more with the answer for the Ragin' Cajuns as he nailed a three-pointer at 1:48 to extend the Cajuns lead to 67-54.
MIDDLE TENNESSEE (19-12) Dean,
Mike 5-12 2-2 17; Cuffee, Michael 4-8 6-8 15; Cuyler, Fats
3-8 0-0 9; Smithson, Bryan 2-7 2-2 6; Morrison, Marcus 2-8
2-4 6; Thomas, Steve 1-3 0-0 2; Weekes, Alex 1-2 0-1 2;
Christmas, Keith 0-0 0-0 0; Young, Kyle 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
18-48 12-17 57.
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE (18-10) Wade, Tiras 11-19 1-1 27;
Greene, Orien 4-12 3-4 13; Hamilton, Brian 5-9 1-3 11;
Mitchell, Dwayne 3-4 4-6 10; Cameron, Chris 1-7 3-4 6;
James, Adam 2-3 0-0 4; Mouton, Ross 0-0 0-0 0; Ford, Spencer
0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 12-18 71.
Halftime: UL 33-24. 3-point goals- MT 9-23 (Dean 5-9; Cuyler 3-6; Cuffee 1-2; Morrison 0-4; Smithson 0-2), UL 7-18 (Wade 4-9; Greene 2-7; Cameron 1-2). Fouled out - MT-Thomas, UL-Hamilton. Rebounds - MT 26 (Cuffee 9), UL 39 (Mitchell 12). Assists - MT 5 (Smithson 4), UL 7 (Mitchell 3; Greene 3). Total fouls - MT 20, UL 17. A-1091.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
