Daigle's 17 Lifts Cajuns to 63-58 Win

LAFAYETTE ? In a reversal of recent series misfortunes, sophomore Randell Daigle (Lafayette, La.) torched North Texas for a career-high-tying 17 points again as the Ragin' Cajuns kept their hopes for a Sun Belt Conference West Division title alive with a 63-58 victory Thursday night at the CAJUNDOME.

In the January meeting between the teams in Denton, Daigle also scored 17 points, including four three-point field goals, but fouled out in the game's last four minutes.

Louisiana (14-14, 10-7 Sun Belt) remains in a tie with UALR for first place in the West Division. The Trojans, who control their own destiny, need to lose Saturday, while the Cajuns need to defeat Denver in order for UL to earn the outright division title.

North Texas (18-10, 9-8 Sun Belt) suffered its first loss to the Cajuns in the last five meetings. Louisiana is now 9-1 against the Mean Green at the CAJUNDOME.

Travis Bureau (Gonzales, La.) added 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting, while David Dees (Dayton, Ohio) chipped in 11 points. Quincy Williams paced the Mean Green with 10 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Adam McCoy added 14 points, while the Cajuns held reigning SBC Player of the Week Collin Dennis to nine points on 3-of-11 shooting.

NT started the second stanza with an 8-4 spurt to close the Cajuns margin to three points. UL countered with a 6-2 surge to reclaim a seven-point lead, 44-37, at 13:38.

David Dees contributed five straight points to help the Cajuns take a 12-point lead with 9:10 remaining.

A triple by Adam McCoy cut the Cajuns lead down to seven, 56-49, with 4:22 to play. The Mean Green proceeded to score five of the game's next six points to drop the Cajuns lead to three points with 90 seconds left.

Brandon Dison made two free throws at 1:24 to give the Cajuns some breathing room, but a free throw by Kedrick Hogans and then a jumper by McCoy made the score 60-58 in favor of UL with only 21.5 seconds remaining.

The Cajuns were able get the ball in to Daigle, who made one from the stripe with 20 seconds remaining in regulation. Daigle would later add two more freebies in the final 10 seconds to seal the five-point victory.

A late first half surge helped the Cajuns take a seven-point lead at the break. UL shot 48 percent, compared to only 33 percent by the Mean Green. NT stayed close thanks to 10 offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes.

The Cajuns jumped out to an early 12-7 lead. All five starters scored in succession for UL. North Texas came back to tie the game at 19-19 with 5:24 to play.

The game remained tied with less than two minutes remaining in the first half until the Cajuns went on a 10-3 run to close the first stanza.

Two free throws by Elijah Millsap started the run. Daigle and Bureau drained triples on back-to-back possessions before Dees converted a lay-up at the buzzer.

Louisiana will conclude the regular season with the hopes of clinching the Sun Belt Conference West Division title on its home floor Saturday night when it hosts the Denver Pioneers. The Ragin' Cajuns will honor its three-player senior class ? Maurice Barksdale, David Dees and Abray Milson ? prior to Saturday night's game. In addition, the first 5,000 fans to enter the ?DOME will receive a free white t-shirt from The6thman.net as part of the “White Out” promotion.

NORTH TEXAS 58

McCoy, Adam 4-12 3-4 14; Williams, Quincy 4-9 2-4 10; Dennis, Collin 3-11

2-4 9; Stewart, Harold 2-4 2-4 6; White, Josh 1-12 4-4 6; Bell, Ben 2-6 0-6

4; Howerton, Justin 2-2 0-2 4; Wooden, Keith 1-2 0-0 2; Hogans, Kedrick 1-2

0-0 2; Thompson, Tristan 0-1 1-3 1. Totals 20-61 14-31 58.

LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 63

Daigle, Randell 5-9 3-4 17; Bureau, Travis 4-8 2-3 12; Dees, David 2-8 7-10

11; Gradnigo, Chris 4-10 0-0 8; Johnson, Tyren 2-4 0-0 5; Wallace, Courtney

1-3 1-2 3; Dison, Brandon 0-0 2-2 2; Millsap, Elijah 0-1 2-2 2; Gary,

La'Ryan 0-0 2-2 2; Milson, Abray 0-1 1-2 1; Lago, Willie 0-3 0-0 0. Totals

18-47 20-27 63.

Halftime: UL 34, NT 27. 3-point goals-North Texas 4-15 (McCoy, Adam 3-7; Dennis, Collin 1-3; White,

Josh 0-4; Bell, Ben 0-1), Louisiana-Lafayette 7-19 (Daigle, Randell 4-6;

Bureau, Travis 2-3; Johnson, Tyren 1-3; Lago, Willie 0-2; Gradnigo, Chris

0-2; Dees, David 0-3). A-3684

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