University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Regular Season Ends in Denver
2/26/2010 11:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
GAME CENTER
Date: Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010
Location: Denver, Colo.
Opponent: Denver (16-12, 9-8 Sun Belt)
Site: Magness Arena (7,200)
Game Time: 6:00 p.m. (CST)
Radio: 107.9 FM (KXHT)
TV: Fox Sports Rocky Mountain
Live Stats/Video: www.RaginCajuns.com
Game Night Story Lines
● Louisiana and Denver meet Saturday night at Magness Arena on the DU campus both looking to position themselves in the 2010 Sun Belt Tournament. UL will finish anywhere from the No. 5 seed through No. 8 seed.
● The Cajuns go for the season sweep of the Pioneers which would mark the first sweep since the 2006-07 season. UL won 55-49 in the Cajundome on Jan. 14.
● Louisiana might be shorthanded for the second straight outing. Chris Gradnigo did not play at North Texas because of injury. He's the second-leading scorer (14.0 ppg).
● In the season's first meeting, the Ragin' Cajuns held Denver - then No. 2 in the nation in field goal percentage - to a season-low 35 percent.
● Tonight's game concludes the regular season. The Sun Belt Tournament begins on Saturday, March 6 in Hot Springs, Ark.
● A win gives the Cajuns 11 Sun Belt wins for the second time in three years ('07-08).
● Tyren Johnson has scored double figures in 17 straight games. He's averaged 20-plus points the past three weeks and is averaging 23.4 in February (seven games).
● Johnson is the only player in the Sun Belt Conference to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.
● Last Saturday's win over UL Monroe secured double-digit SBC on-court wins for the 12th time in 19 seasons.
● Since the turn of the calendar year UL has limited 11 of 15 opponents below 70 points (five under 60). The Cajuns are holding opponents to 63.2 points per game during the streak.
NORTH TEXAS LEFTOVERS
● Louisiana played shorthanded as second-leading scorer Chris Gradnigo (14.0 ppg) missed the game with an injury.
● UL's defense held NT to 1-of-11 from the floor in the first 11 minutes.
● Each team had a 17-6 spurt in the opening half, resulting in a 23-all tie at half.
● Tyren Johnson scored 22 points, moving over 500 for the season. He's the first Cajun since Ross Mouton and David Dees in 2006-07 to reach 500 in a season.
● UL suffered its sixth consecutive defeat at The Super Pit (5-8 all-time in arena).
LAST TIME VS. DENVER (Jan. 14, 2010 in Cajundome - UL won 55-49)
● After DU cut the lead to 5-4 on a Nate Rohnert floater at 17:58 the Cajuns rolled off a 7-0 run capped off by a Tyren Johnson basket at 14:28 for a 12-4 lead.
● Rohnert broke the run at 13:42, and then UL proceeded to pound the ball inside finding Chris Gradnigo twice and Johnson once for six unanswered points and a 20-6 lead.
● Rob Lewis scored the final seven points of the half to help DU trim the deficit to 30-17.
● A Randell Daigle triple at 14:05 gave the Cajuns their first 20-point lead, 41-20.
● A triple by Brian Stafford at 4:04 pulled DU within 10, 47-37, then three UL turnovers led to six unanswered points. Stafford hit two freebies at 2:22 to make it 47-43.
LAST TIME AT DENVER (Feb. 19, 2009 - Denver won 55-51)
● The Cajuns trailed by 15 points less than four minutes into the second half, but outscored DU 17-5 over the next 13-plus minutes.
● UL was whistled for three fouls, two offensive, in a 29-second span with under two minutes to play that contributed to the team
falling behind by six points with 1:00 left.
● DU scored all seven of its points in the final two minutes from the free throw line.
● DU used a 15-2 run to take a 15-6 edge with 10:36 left in the opening half.
● DU began the second half with a 12-3 run to open a 41-26 lead with 16:17 remaining.
A LOOK AT THE SUN BELT TOURNAMENT SEEDING PICTURE
● The Ragin' Cajuns are currently the No. 6 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament. Arkansas Sate has to lose for UL to have a shot at the No. 5 seed.
● In a three-way tiebreaker with UL, Denver and FAU at 10-8, Denver is No. 6. Cajuns would be either No. 7 or No. 8 depending on league champion (No. 1 seed).
● Troy and North Texas (division leaders) are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Middle Tennessee is holding on to the No. 3 spot.
● Only South Alabama (No. 9) and UL Monroe (No. 10) are locked into their tournament seed heading into Saturday's games.
SERIES HISTORY (Louisiana leads 17-6, overall; UL leads 6-4 in Denver; Tied at 4-4 in Magness Arena)
● This will be the 11th meeting in Denver. The Cajuns are 6-4 in Denver against the Pioneers. The series is even at 4-all in games played at Magness Arena; Louisiana is 2-0 against the Pioneers in Hamilton Gymnasium. DU has won four of the last five meetings in Magness Arena.
● Low-scoring affairs have been the theme as of late. The winning team in each of the past eight meetings has scored no more than 67 points. UL is 6-2 vs. DU in the stretch.
● UL has held the Pioneers below 70 points, 15 times in 23 previous meetings.
● The last time the road team won in the series was Feb. 17, 2007 when UL posted a 67-65 victory in Magness Arena.
● Louisiana won the first eight series meetings before Denver upset the Ragin' Cajuns 72-68 at the 2003 Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Bowling Green, Ky.
BY THE NUMBERS
5-0: Louisiana's record when holding the opponent below 60 points
Below-60: UL has held Denver below 60 points in regulation in four straight meetings
6: The Ragin' Cajuns are currently the No. 6 seed in SBC Tournament.
6: Tyren Johnson is six field goal makes shy of 200
9: Nine of 13 wins have come when scoring 70-plus and when holding opponent below 70
13: Raymone Andrews has committed only 13 turnovers in 484 minutes
20.1: Tyren Johnson's scoring average in Sun Belt play
28.1: Louisiana is averaging 28.1 points in the paint. The Cajuns have reached 30-plus, 12 times
65: Randell Daigle has made 65 triples, a new season-best for him
400/200: Tyren Johnson has 507 points and 225 rebounds. First player since Dwayne Mitchell and Michael Southall in 2005-06 to reach 400/200
1,015: Career point total for Chris Gradnigo. He's just the 38th player in UL history to reach 1,000 points
2006-07: Last time UL swept Denver in season series
LAST TIME OUT: North Texas 65, Louisiana 57 (Feb. 25, 2010 - Denton, Texas)
● UL had just eight players and played without second-leading scorer Chris Gradnigo (14.0 ppg).
● The Cajuns started the game by outscoring the Mean Green 17-6. UL's defense held NT to 1-of-11 from the floor in the first 11 minutes.
● An identical 17-6 run by the hosts over the final nine minutes tied the game at 23-23 at the break.
● Tied at 34-34 with 13:48 left, the Cajuns lost the ball on three straight possessions and the Mean Green scored seven unanswered points.
● The Cajuns closed to within three points at the 4:38 mark and with 3:30 left, both times on a three-pointer by Tyren Johnson.
● Two free throws by Randell Daigle with 2:51 remaining pulled UL within three, again, but NT countered with a triple by Josh White and a layup by Eric Tramiel to take a 62-54 lead with 91 seconds left.
● North Texas shot 14-of-21 (67 percent) from the floor in the second half.
UP NEXT FOR LOUISIANA
The Ragin' Cajuns await the completion of other Sun Belt games to see where they are seeded for the 2010 Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The tournament will run Saturday-Tuesday, March 6-9 in Hot Springs, Ark., at The Summitt Arena and Convention Center.
Louisiana's first round game will be played on Saturday, March 6 with the opponent and time to be determined.
The Sun Belt will release the official tournament seeds and schedule on Sunday, Feb. 28.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
