University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Fullerton Completes Season Sweep of the Cajuns
12/20/2006 5:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
FULLERTON, Calif. - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball team saw its losing streak reach four games as Cal State Fullerton posted a 85-49 victory here Wednesday evening at Titan Gym.
The Ragin' Cajuns (2-9) led the game 12-10 with 12 minutes remaining in the first half before Marcus Crenshaw and the Titans began knocking down shots to pull away.
Crenshaw hit three 3-point baskets ? the first giving CSF a 13-12 lead at 11:28 of the first half ? over a four-minute span and at the end with his third triple the Titans had bolted out on a 17-2 run which opened a double digit lead for the rest of the evening.
The win helped CSF (8-2) complete the non-conference season series sweep between the two teams. The Titans won 91-89 in overtime on Nov. 24 in Lafayette.
The Ragin' Cajuns were led by 19 points from Ross Mouton. Leading scorer David Dees was limited to only four points ? well below his season average of 21.1 points per game.
The Titans benefited from four players reaching double figures led by a team-high 16 points from Justin Burns. Crenshaw had 12 points with all of his scoring coming from three-point range.
UL had nine different players score points, but only two players were able to make more than two field goals.
The Cajuns shot below 40 percent from the field for the second straight outing. UL shot 35.7 percent hitting 20-of-56 shots. UL was only 3-of-17 from three-point range.
The Titans finished the game hitting 48.6 percent of their shots connecting on 34-of-70 attempts. CSF was 10-of-22 from beyond the arc and outscored the Cajuns 30-9 from three-point land.
The loss keeps the Ragin' Cajuns winless on the road this season. UL falls to 0-5 in hostile territory with two of the last three losses on the road coming by 30-plus points.
The Ragin' Cajuns scored first after the two teams traded scoreless possessions at the onset of the contest. Abray Milson rebounded a miss and converted the putback at 19:15.
The Titans evened the score on the ensuing possession when Burns hit two free throws at 19:06. It was the first of six unanswered points for CSF which opened a 6-2 lead by the 18 minute mark.
Dees got a steal and raced in for an uncontested layup at 16:40 which made it 6-4. The basket moved him to 1,000 points in his career including the two seasons played at Liberty. Dees entered the game with 998 career points.
Bobby Brown cut down the baseline as the clock ticked under 16 minutes and Frank Robinson bounced him a pass for the backdoor layup which upped the lead to 8-4. The Cajuns had to put up a desperation shot on the return trip as the shot clock was winding out. The Titans grabbed the rebound and found Burns on the other end of a fastbreak for a quick layup which increased the lead to 10-4 with 15:10 left in the first half.
UL's defense held CSF scoreless over the next four minutes and the Cajuns reeled off an 8-0 run which gave the visitors a 12-10 lead before the 12 minute mark.
A basket from Willie Lago and then Valentino Hart on a third offensive putback try cut the lead to 10-8 as the clock neared 14 minutes.
Neither team scored for a minute until the Cajuns got two baskets that were only 18 seconds apart.
Rhett Hebert entered the lineup and his first shot attempt was good in the right wing at 12:57 to tie the game at 10-all. After a quick defensive stop the Cajuns ran back up the floor and found Tyren Johnson for a shot off glass at 12:39 that returned the lead to the UL side of the scoreboard at 12-10.
After the 11-minute media timeout Crenshaw hit a three-pointer that put the Titans back in front 13-12 at 11:28. His triple was the first points of a 17-2 run by the hosts capped off by another Crenshaw triple at the 7:00 mark that opened a 27-14 advantage.
Mouton followed a miss by Adam James for a putback basket at 5:41 which brought the deficit to 27-16.
CSF stretched the lead back out with three-point baskets on consecutive possessions. Crenshaw's third three-pointer of the half came with 5:04 on the clock. On the Titans next possession it was Robinson at the top of the key with a three-pointer that increased the lead to 33-16.
The Cajuns worked the lead back down to 14 points on two occasions before the Titans used a 9-2 burst in the final 2:26 to open a 21-point lead at the break.
Mouton hit his first three-pointer of the evening at 3:40 to make it 33-19. Brown and Dees swapped baskets on the next two possessions and the CSF lead was 35-21 with 2:26 left in the opening stanza.
The Titans scored nine of the half's final 11 points to increase its lead at the break to 44-23.
The Ragin' Cajuns had eight different players score at least two points in the first half.
CSF hit 55 percent of its shots (18-of-33) and made five 3-pointers in the game's first 20 minutes. The Ragin' Cajuns were held to 33 percent shooting (10-of-30) and were only 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.
The second half began with a three-pointer for the Titans by Robinson that pushed the lead to 47-23.
The Cajuns put together a mini run which resulted in five straight points capped off by a Mouton triple at 18:15 that made it 47-28.
Scott Cutley and Milson swapped made baskets at 17:56 and 17:41, respectively, and the margin remained at 19 points at 49-30. Only eight seconds later did the lead return into the 20-point range as Robinson followed Milson's make with another three-pointer which upped the lead to 52-30.
Turnovers continued to haunt the Cajuns and it was a pair of turnovers that led to easy slam dunks for Ray Reed on the next two CSF touches and the lead was 56-30 with 16:41 left in the game.
When Elijah Millsap threw down a slam dunk at 15:49 after a long rebound off a CSF miss the Cajuns closed the gap to 25 points at 58-33 ? the closest the squad would get for the rest of the game.
Millsap's basket would also be the final one for the Ragin' Cajuns until the 10:28 mark. By that time CSF had pushed the lead over 30 points.
The Ragin' Cajuns will return to action and attempt to break its current losing streak when the squad travels down Interstate 10 on Saturday, Dec. 23 to meet in-state rival McNeese State. The 83rd installment of the Cajuns-Cowboys series is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m., at the Lake Charles Civic Center.
