ORLANDO, Fla. ? UCF held Louisiana to a season-low 23.2 field goal percentage as the Knights capitalized on several Ragin' Cajuns mistakes, taking a 65-52 victory Tuesday night at the New UCF Arena.
Despite a tough shooting night from the floor, Louisiana (1-5) shot a season-best 77.8 percent from the free throw line. Sophomore Elijah Millsap (Grambling, La.) led the way at the charity stripe, knocking down 13-of-14 attempts, finishing the night with 13 points. Millsap did not make a field goal in the game ? just the second occurrence in his career.
Senior guard David Dees (Dayton, Ohio) also chipped in 13 points, going 4-for-8 from the field. Dees and Millsap also tied for the team lead with eight rebounds.
Jermaine Taylor led all scorers with 18 points, while Dave Noel added 14.
Similar to UCF's start to the first half, Louisiana opened the second half with five straight points, cutting the deficit to 33-32. However, the Knights responded with a torrid 10-0 run to take a commanding 11-point lead, 43-32, with 15:18 remaining in regulation.
A Dees triple in transition snapped UCF's run, cutting the Knights lead back to single digits, 43-35.
However, UCF forced Louisiana to take too many ill-advised shots, while taking advantage of several Cajuns miscues. UCF extended its lead to 13 points, 55-42, with 8:48 remaining in the second half. That lead would continue to increase as the Knights held Louisiana without a field goal for more than six minutes.
Trailing by 19 points, Louisiana finally put in its first basket in more than nine minutes with a Brandon Dison (New Orleans, La.) floater in the lane with 3:15 remaining in the game.
UCF opened the contest with five straight points, taking an early 5-0 lead, before Dison's running jumper along the baseline gave Louisiana its first points at the 16:56 mark.
The Knights would continue to frustrate the Cajuns on both ends of the court. Trailing 13-5, Louisiana cut the UCF lead to four points on back-to-back trips to the free throw line by Tyren Johnson (Edgard, La.) and Millsap.
A triple by Randell Daigle (Lafayette, La.) brought the Cajuns to within one, 13-12, with 12:18 remaining until the break. However, a quick miss by Johnson allowed the Knights an easy transition basket, brining the lead back to three points.
Louisiana once again cut the UCF lead to one, 17-16, on a La'Ryan Gary (Lafayette, La.) 15-footer from the right wing. The Cajuns later knotted it up at 17 all on Millsap's fifth free throw of the half.
UCF built its lead back to four points, 21-17, before Daigle drained his second trey of the half as the shot clock expired.
With UCF holding to a 21-20 lead, Louisiana tied the game for the third time of the half on a Johnson free throw. But, Noel drilled a three-pointer from the left wing to give the Knights a 24-21 edge. UCF closed out the first half with a Mike O'Donnell jumper and Taylor triple to take a 33-27 lead into the locker room.
Taylor led all scorers with 10 points on just 2-of-6 shooting from the floor, while Millsap paced Louisiana with nine points ? all from the free throw line. Louisiana shot a season-best 13-of-16 (.813) from the charity stripe in the first half, but the Cajuns shooting woes from the field continued as UL shot just 24 percent (6-of-25).
Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball team will return to action Thursday, Dec. 13, when it hosts the McNeese State Cowboys at the CAJUNDOME. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m.
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 52
Dees, David 4-8 3-4 13; Millsap, Elijah 0-5 13-14 13; Gary, La'Ryan 4-11 1-2
9; Daigle, Randell 2-8 0-0 6; Dison, Brandon 2-7 0-1 4; Johnson, Tyren 0-5
3-4 3; Gradnigo, Chris 1-10 0-0 3; Wallace, Courtney 0-1 1-2 1; Milson,
Abray 0-1 0-0 0; Lago, Willie 0-0 0-0 0; Bloom, Corey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
13-56 21-27 52.
UCF 65
TAYLOR, Jermaine 5-14 6-7 18; NOEL, Dave 4-8 5-6 14; DAVIS, Tony 3-7 2-2 9;
O'DONNELL, Mike 3-7 0-1 7; BILLINGS, Stanley 2-5 2-4 6; THORNTON, Andre 2-3
0-2 4; CARTWRIGHT, Chip 2-4 0-0 4; ZONDERVAN, Kenrick 1-1 1-2 3; YOTIO, Jean
Michel 0-1 0-0 0; POPE, Cordell 0-2 0-0 0; YOUNG, Taylor 0-0 0-0 0; SPERAW,
Drew 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-52 16-24 65.
Half: UCF 33, UL 27. 3-point goals--UL 5-20 (Daigle, Randell 2-6; Dees, David
2-5; Gradnigo, Chris 1-3; Johnson, Tyren 0-3; Gary, La'Ryan 0-2; Millsap,
Elijah 0-1), UCF 5-11 (TAYLOR, Jermaine 2-5; O'DONNELL, Mike 1-2; DAVIS,
Tony 1-1; NOEL, Dave 1-1; POPE, Cordell 0-2). A-3604
Louisiana-UCF Game Notes
- Louisiana head coach Robert Lee shook up his starting lineup for Tuesday's game, starting senior David Dees at point guard. Sophomore Brandon Dison also made his first career start, starting at the two-guard spot.
- Louisiana lost to UCF for the first time in nine meetings Tuesday night. It also marked Louisiana's second loss to a Conference USA school this season.
- Elijah Millsap set a career-best at the free throw in the first half, sinking 9-of-10. His nine made free throws surpass his previous career high of seven set against Troy in January 2007.
- Millsap's 13 free throws are the most by a Cajun since Anthony Johnson made 15 at New Orleans on Jan. 11, 2003.
- Millsap did not make a field goal Tuesday night, marking just the second occurrence in his career. The first was his Ragin' Cajuns debut against Stephen F. Austin on Dec. 9, 2006, when he went 0-for-5.
- KLFT-TV (Cox Digital Channel 135) will air all three Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball games at the 44th Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic Dec.19-22 in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
-www.RaginCajuns.com-
