Comeback Falls Just Short

LAFAYETTE-Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team trailed by as many as 15 to North Texas in the first half, but battled back to claim a one point lead with 1:18. The Cajuns' comeback fell just short as the Mean Green claimed a 57-56 victory on Thursday night at the CAJUNDOME.

With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Whitney Dunlap made a layup to cut the Mean Green lead to just one and a layup by Mercedes Johnson gave the Cajuns' their first lead of the afternoon at 56-55 with 1:18 to play, capping off a 10-to-0 run by Louisiana.

However, less than 20 second came off the clock before North Texas' Amber Jackson gave the Mean Green the lead back with a layup with just a minute to play.

The basket proved to be the difference as neither team managed to score in the final minute of regulation and North Texas staved off the Cajuns by one point.

Johnson paced the Cajuns with 19 points off the bench. Twelve of her points came in the second half with eight points coming in the Cajuns' 10-to-0 run to grab the lead late in the game. Johnson tallied a career high in points and field goals made as the true freshman finished the night with nine baskets.

Alexis Green was once again solid. The junior transfer posted her eighth double-digit scoring effort of the season, netting 15 points. She led the team with eight rebounds in 39 minutes of work.

North Texas' Jackson led all scorers with 20 and finished the game with a double-double, pulling down 12 rebounds.

UL shot over 40-percent from the floor (41.7-percent) marking the third time in the last four games Louisiana has shot over 40-percent. The Cajuns' received 32 points off of their bench, powered by Johnson's 19.

Despite falling behind early, the Cajuns and Mean Green played fairly even throughout the night. Both teams shot around 40-percent from the floor with each team scoring 32 points in the paint. The Cajuns held a one-point edge (14-13) in points off of turnovers and the Mean Green boasted a slight advantage (18-13) in second chance points.

Both teams came out timid from the floor and neither team scored a field goal for the first three minutes of the game.

Leading 2-0 thanks to a pair of free throws, North Texas scored the next eight points of the game and kept the Cajuns off the scoreboard for the first 6:32 of the game. The Cajuns scratched the scoreboard and halted the Mean Green 10-to-0 run with a Nicole Morris three pointer from the corner.

Morris followed her trey with a mid-range jumper to cut the deficit to just five, but a layup by North Texas extended their advantage to 12-5 with 12:08 remaining in the half.

Johnson trimmed the NT lead to just four as she was fouled making a layup. She converted the freebie to close the gap to 12-8.

The two teams exchanged baskets over the next two minutes until North Texas' Mansa El rattled off eight consecutive points to give the visitors a 12-point advantage, 24-12, at the 8-minute media timeout.

UL and North Texas battled each other evenly over the final 7:33 of the half and the Mean Green took a 37-24 lead into halftime.

The Cajuns started the second half with five consecutive points by Green. The junior drained a triple and converted a layup to cut the deficit to single digits.

Jasmine Barnes, playing for the first time in four games, trimmed the margin to six points at 37-31 with just under 17-minutes to play in regulation.

Louisiana continued their run with a Green layup. North Texas' Jackson connected on a layup, but Morris answered with a jumper to make the score 39-35 with 15:39 remaining.

Following another Jackson layup, Green was fouled scoring a layup of her own but missed the free throw attempt to leave the score at 41-37 with 13:55 to play.

Trailing by four, Dunlap connected on her first three pointer of the game to cut the Mean Green lead to just 43-42, the closest the Cajuns had been since the score was 1-0.

After Torrian Timms' layup at 11:32 extended the North Texas lead back to three points at 45-42, both teams experienced a scoring drought. Over the next three minutes of play, neither team was able to score, but Johnson broke the scoring lull with a jumper to cut NT's lead to just one.

Leading 45-44, North Texas scored the next six points to extend their edge back to seven points. Johnson snapped the Mean Green scoring streak with a layup to pull the Cajuns to within five, 51-46, with 6:15 remaining.

North Texas methodically extended their lead to nine points, but back-to-back layups by Johnson cut the deficit to just 55-50 with 3:48 left to play. A defensive stop by the Cajuns, followed by another Johnson layup saw Louisiana down by three with just 2:53 remaining in regulation.

With 1:52 remaining in the game, Dunlap made a layup to cut the Mean Green lead to just one and a layup by Johnson gave the Cajuns' their first lead of the afternoon at 56-55 with 1:18 to play.

Less than 20 second came off the clock before Jackson gave North Texas the lead back with a layup with just a minute to play.

The Mean Green possessed the ball with 29.1 seconds to play and a one point lead, but a turnover on the inbounds pass gave the Cajuns the ball back. However, UL also had trouble inbounding the ball and gave North Texas the ball back with 26.8 seconds remaining.

A foul put North Texas' Brittany James at the free throw line with 16 seconds to play. James missed the charity shot and the Cajuns rebounded the ball with just over 10 seconds to play.

A fatal turnover by UL gave the Mean Green control of the ball. Mansa El missed the front end of a one-and-one with one second remaining and time expired as the two teams fought for possession of the ball.

The Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team continues Sun Belt Conference play with a televised game against in-state rival ULM. The Cajuns and Warhawks will be televised on CST and will tip-off at 3 p.m. at the CAJUNDOME.

-www.RaginCajuns.com-

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