Rebels Spoil Cajuns Home Opener

LAFAYETTE-Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team dropped to 0-2 on the season as they dropped a 74-48 decision in their home opener against Ole Miss on Wednesday night at Earl K. Long Gym.

Tied 21-21 with six minutes to play in the first half, Ole Miss went on a 17-0 run to close out the half and the Cajuns were unable to recover. UL pulled no closer than 14 points in the second half as Mississippi claimed the victory.

The match-up marked the first time since Jan. 15, 1982 that the Cajuns hosted an SEC opponent at Long Gym.

Alexis Green all players with 17 points on the night, while Jasmine Barnes also turned in a double-digit scoring effort, chipping in 10 points. Mercedes Johnson added nine points of her own to round out the top three scorers for Louisiana.

Whitney Dunlap led Louisiana with five rebounds, with Johnson, Barnes and Amy Richard each pulled down four boards apiece.

The Cajuns did a good job of securing the ball, turning the ball over just 13 times ? a 15 turnover improvement from the first game.

For the second time in as many games, the Cajuns were unable to generate offense on a consistent basis. UL finished the game 19-of-60 from the field and only 4-of-17 from behind the arc.

Ole Miss was led by Kayla Melson and Alliesha Easley who scored 13 and 12, respectively.

The Cajuns came out of the gate ready to play and jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. The UL run was started by a free throw by Johnson. Green added a basket under the goal and D'Mya Clay capped off the 5-0 run with a fast break layup.

The Rebels responded with a 7-0 run of their own to take a two-point edge. Jasmine Barnes stopped the Ole Miss run with a jumper in the paint with just over 13 minutes to play in the first half.

With the game tied 7-7, Ole Miss proceeded to take a 12-to-7 lead before Krystal Motley made a jumper from the right side to cut the deficit to just three points.

Louisiana trailed by as many as seven points before a 12-to-5 surge by the Cajuns knotted the score at 21-21 with six minutes to play in the half. The run was highlighted by a pair of Dunlap triples and a game-tying layup by Barnes.

The streaks continued as Ole Miss ended the half with a 17-0 run to finish out the half.

Easley rattled off five consecutive points to give the visitors a 26-21 edge with 4:34 to play in the half.

Neither team scored over the next two minutes of action, until UM's Elizabeth Robertson connected on a pair of jumpers and a free throw to extend Ole Miss' lead to 31-21 with 1:35 remaining in the first half of play.

The two teams played virtually even for the first 13 minute of the second half before Ole Miss started to pull away, extending the lead to as many as 26 points.

The Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team returns to action this weekend as they host a pair of non-conference games. The Cajuns play Mercer on Friday night at 7 p.m., before closing out the weekend with a game against Centenary on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.

-www.RaginCajuns.com-

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