University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Texas-Pan American
Texas-Pan American vs Louisiana-Lafayette
12/20/2006 5:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
LAFAYETTE-Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team stepped out of conference and edged Texas-Pan American 59-53, Wednesday night at Earl K. Long Gym.
The Cajuns used a late 16-0 run to build a 12-point lead and outlast the Lady Broncs.
Trailing by four, Courtney Ratliff brought the Cajuns to within three with a free throw at the 8:36 mark.
Sonora Edwards completed a three-point play, connecting on a free throw after a lay-up to tie the score at 43-43 with 6:49 to play.
A defensive stop led to a Whitney Dunlap jumper, giving the Cajuns their first lead since the 12:20 mark of the second half.
The Cajuns made four consecutive free throws, before Edwards and Dunlap both drained three-pointers from the top of the key giving UL their largest lead of the night at 55-43.
UL hung on to withstand an 8-2 Broncs run and win by six points.
The Cajuns had four players in double figures led by Yolanda Jones who recorded her 21s)t double-double as a Cajun.
Jones finished the game with 14 points and 13 rebounds. She was tie by Onna Charles who also netted 14 points. Charles netted four triples on the night.
Dunlap, who played a career high 40 minutes, dropped 13 points including three triples on the night.
Edwards finished the game with 11 points.
The Cajuns as a team netted nine three pointers, just two shy of their season high 11. All four players in double figures made at least one three pointer. Louisiana finished the game hitting 47-percent from behind the arc.
The Lady Broncs out-shot the Cajuns 51-percent to 40-percent from the floor, but UL's nine triples helped overcome the shooting deficit.
The Cajuns wasted little time upping their three-point numbers.
In the first half, the Cajuns made six baskets from behind the arc, but only led 31-27 at halftime because of 12 UL turnovers.
Dunlap started the game draining a 25-footer to give the Cajuns a 3-0 advantage just under 30-seconds into the game.
Charles, who made her first three attempts from behind the arc, drained her first triple with the Cajuns trailing 7-5, to give UL a one-point edge.
Her next trey came at the 14-minute mark with the Lady Broncs clinging to a 9-8 advantage. Charles' basket gave the Ragin' Cajuns a two point edge, their largest lead since the score was 3-0.
A quick basket by Louisiana and Charles' third three-pointer of the half gave the Cajuns a 16-9 lead with 11:30 to play.
UL built up an 11 point lead, but were outscored 12-5 in the last seven minutes of the half because of six turnovers which led directly to eight Lady Bronc points.
In the second half, the Texas-Pan American tied the score at 34-34 with 15:01 remaining in the game.
Jones scored the Cajuns next five points, but could not help UL pull away and with 12:20 left to play, Louisiana's lead was just one point at 39-38.
UTPA took the lead on a pair of free throws by MaHogany Daniel and extended their lead to four with a triple from the right corner ? their largest lead of the night.
Trailing 43-39, the Cajuns went on a 16-0 run covering 4:29 to take a 12-point lead.
UTPA cut the lead to eight with two quick baskets, but Edwards drained a long jumper to extend the Ragin' Cajuns edge back to double digits with 2:40 remaining.
The Lady Broncs cut the UL advantage to as little as seven points, but two free throws by Charles with 17-seconds remaining secured the Cajuns victory.
