University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Thursday, January 3
Boca Raton, Fla.
6:00 PM
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
at
Florida Atlantic
Cajuns Start Florida Swing At FAU On Thursday
12/31/2012 2:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Contact: Brian McCann
Complete Game Notes (PDF)
Game 16
Louisiana (6-9, 2-2) at Florida Atlantic (6-8, 2-2)
Date: Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Site: FAU Arena (5,000), Boca Raton, Fla.
Radio: KPEL (1420 AM) & KHXT (107.9 FM) (Jay Walker)
TV: None
Series: Louisiana Leads, 4-3
Last Meeting: UL 67, FAU 55 (12/31/11, Lafayette, La.)
THE COACHES:
LOUISIANA
BOB MARLIN (Mississippi State '81)
At Louisiana: 36-40 (3rd year)
4-Year Overall: 261-171 (15th year)
All Collegiate: 384-206 (20th year)
vs. FAU: 2-0
FLORIDA ATLANTIC
MIKE JARVIS (Northwestern '68)
At FAU: 59-80 (5th year)
Overall: 377-282 (24th year)
vs. Louisiana: 2-3
SETTING THE SCENE: Fresh off a stirring 79-70 win over UALR that put them into a first place tie in the Sun Belt west division, the Ragin' Cajuns travel to the state of Florida to open the new year with a pair of league games. Louisiana takes on Florida Atlantic on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 7:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. in Lafayette) in the FAU Arena. The Cajuns close out the trip on Saturday, Jan. 5 with a 7:30 p.m. EST contest at FIU. The Ragin' Cajuns enter the FAU game with a 6-9 record and in a first place tie with UALR and Arkansas State in the west division with a 2-2 record. FAU brings a 6-8 overall and 2-2 league record into the contest, but the Owls have dropped four of their last five games, including a 65-64 decision at ULM on Saturday. This will be the eighth meeting between FAU and Louisiana. The Cajuns own a 4-3 series edge, including a 67-55 win in Lafayette last year. The home court has been important in the series as the home team has won six of the seven contests.
PREVIEWING LOUISIANA: With a lineup featuring five freshmen and four sophomores, third year head coach Bob Marlin is excited about the possibilities for the 2012-13 season, knowing that the team that took the court in November will grow and improve all season. As the new faces get acclimated to the collegiate game, the Cajuns have leaned heavily on junior Bryant Mbamalu (12.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg) and sophomore sensation Elfrid Payton (13.7, 6.1, 5.0). Guard Alan-Michael Thompson (5.8 ppg), the lone senior on the squad, is also playing an increased role this year. Freshman forward Shawn Long (16.2 ppg, 9.7 rpg), a transfer from Mississippi State, and power forward Elridge Moore (5.5, 3.3), a JC transfer from Lamar State, will unite to form the nucleus of the inside game with freshman Cornell Barnett and walk-on Braylan Lazare providing the depth inside. Although Payton, Mbamalu and Thompson provide the athleticism, quickness and leadership, the freshmen trio of Steven Wronkoski (7.5, 3.1), Kasey Shepherd (3.0) and Josh Soto (3.8) also contribute, giving Louisiana a deep backcourt. Marlin is utilizing the depth and quickness by forcing an up-tempo game at both ends of the court by applying more defensive pressure. Look for the Cajuns to use their quickness and outside shooting ability to create a balanced offense, forcing opponents to cover the entire court.
ENJOYING A SWEEP: Saturday's sweep of UALR by the Ragin' Cajuns basketball teams, the men claiming a 79-70 win and the women earning a 56-54 double-overtime victory over a Trojan team that was 10-1 going into the game, marked the first sweep of a home doubleheader by Louisiana since the end of the 2009-10 season, a span of 12 twinbills. The Cajuns men's team has fared well in doubleheaders under head coach Bob Marlin, owning a 9-2 record at home and 5-5 on the road.
THE MBAM HAS GONE OFF: There is no hotter player in the Sun Belt than junior Bryant Mbamalu, who has scored 20 or more points in three of the last four games. Mbamalu started the run with a 21-point effort against Robert Morris on Dec. 18 and then followed it up with 22 points vs. Duquesne on Dec. 22. After a season low four points at Arkansas State on Dec. 27, he came back to score a season-high 26 vs. UALR on Saturday. Over the last four games, Mbamalu is averaging 18.3 points a game, shooting .643 from the field (27-42) and .529 from three-point (9-17). Those are considerably improved numbers over the .423 he shot from the field (41-97) and .340 from three-point (16-47) over the first 11 games.
PAYTON IS TWO SHORT OF LAST YEAR: With the Cajuns reaching the halfway point of the season this week, sophomore Elfrid Payton has made 35 steals, two short of the 37 he had last year in leading the team.
PAYTON & MBAMALU START ALONE: With Shawn Long coming off the bench for the first time this season at Arkansas State on Dec. 27, that leaves junior Bryant Mbamalu and sophomore Elfrid Payton as the only Cajuns to start every game this season. Long and Elridge Moore have each started 14 of the 15 games.
BARNETT BECOMES NINTH CAJUN TO START: When freshman Cornell Barnett started in place of Shawn Long at Arkansas State on Dec. 27, he became the ninth diffterent Ragin' Cajuns player to start at least one game this year.
. . . AND LOUISIANA USES A FIFTH DIFFERENT STARTING LINEUP: The youth of the Cajuns is evident this season in the head coach Bob Marlins has used five different starting lineups in the first 14 games. The group of Elfrid Payton, Bryant Mbamalu, Steven Wronkoski, Elridge Moore and Shawn Long have started nine times, leading UL to a 4-5 record. The only other group to start multiple games included Alan-Michael Thompson in place of Wronkoski, a lineup that started the first three games together. Last year, Marlin used 12 different starting lineups, including 10 different in the first 13 games before he settled on a lineup that started 15 of the final 21 games.
SUPPORTING CAST THE DIFFERENCE: The Louisiana bench has proven to be an important factor in determining sucess on the court this year. The Cajun bench has scored 20 points or more five times this year with UL going 4-1 in those games. In the six Cajun wins, the reserves have totalled 122 points (20.3 ppg). At the other end of the spectrum, the bench has produced 119 points in the nine losses (13.2 ppg).
. . . BUT THE ARKANSAS STATE GAME WAS THE OPPOSITE: The Louisiana bench was responsible for a season-high 42 points on Thursday night (Dec. 27) at Arkansas State but the scoring outburst didn't help as UL fell, 87-70. With the starting lineup producing just 28 points in the game, the bench came through as Alan-Michael Thompson scored 13 points while freshmen Josh Soto (10) and Kasey Shepherd (8) each set career highs. The 42 points was helped by 11 points from Shawn Long, who came off the bench for the first time this season.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF CHARITY: Bob Marlin said during the preseason that one area in which Louisiana would definitely show improvement is at the foul line, where the Cajuns shot just .631 (483-766) last year. So far, that prediction has come true as Louisiana has shot 70-percent or better from the line in nine of the 15 games and the Cajuns are just under .700 mark for the year. The Cajuns enter the Florida Atlantic game having gone 195-for-280 (.696). The last time that the Cajuns shot above 70-percent for an entire season came 20 seasons ago (1993-94) when they went 463-for-647 (.716).
. . . AND THE FRESHMEN LEAD THE WAY: The simplest way to improve a team's free throw shooting is to simply get better shooters and Bob Marlin has apparently done that. The four freshman currently on the Louisiana roster have made 71 of their 91 free throws this year (.780). Steven Wronkoski (26-33, .788) and Shawn Long (37-48, .771) lead the way.
CAJUNS BENEFIT FROM LATE FREE THROW SHOOTING: The free throw shooting by the Cajuns has been at its best late in the game as Louisiana has gone 71-for-88 (.807) from the line in the final 5:00 minutes and overtime. Shawn Long (10-10) and Steven Wronkoski (8-8) lead the team while Bryant Mbamalu, a career .780 shooter (32-41), is 11-for-12 this year (.917). That is a considerable improvement from the .617 (121-196) that the Cajuns shot during the 2011-12 season.
. . . FREE THROWS KEY WIN OVER UALR: Clutch free throw shooting was a key in Saturday's win over UALR as the Cajuns went 11-for-13 from the line in the final 2:03 of the game to deny the Trojans an opportunity to come back. After missing their first two attempts, Louisiana shooters knocked down their next 11 to finish the game. The game took a similar path on Dec. 1 at North Texas when the Cajuns went 11-for-14 (.786) from the stripe in the final 5:00, including seven-for-eight (.875) in the final 15 seconds to secure an 80-76 win.
LONG TRIES TO EQUAL FRESHMAN SCORING FEAT: With a 16.2 scoring average through 15 games and 2.6 points per game average ahead of second leading scorer Elfrid Payton (13.7 ppg), freshman Shawn Long is on pace to become just the fifth freshman to lead the team in scoring. He would join Tim Thompson (14.2 ppg in 1957-58), Jerry Flake (17.6, 1965-66), Andrew Toney (21.0, 1976-77) and Chris Gradnigo (9.6, 2007-08).
. . . AND A SCORING, REBOUNDS & BLOCKS ACCOMPLISHMENT: Shawn Long's impact is more than just being a scorer. Ranking third in the Sun Belt in scoring and rebounding (9.7) and fourth in blocks (2.1), Long is on a pace to become just the third player in school history to lead the team in all three stat categories in a single season. Tyren Johnson was the most recent, averaging 17.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 2009-10. Reginald Poole is the other to accomplish it, doing it in both 1996-97 (16.0, 10.3, 1.7) and 1998-99 (14.7, 7.1, 0.9).
CHASING A TRIPLE-DOUBLE: Sophomore Elfrid Payton continues to inch closer and closer to recording the first triple-double by a Ragin' Cajuns player in almost a decade. Payton closed the 2011-12 season with a 13-point, eight-rebound and nine-assist game in the opening round of the Sun Belt Championship. He toyed with the stat in the season opener against Oakland (14 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists), SUNO (11,7 , 7) and on Dec. 1 at North Texas (14, 6, 9) and went a different route at Michigan State (Nov. 25), scoring 20 points with six rebounds and a career-high seven steals. He came the closest yet in early December. He scored 17 points with 10 rebounds and seven assists at McNeese State (Dec. 8) and came back with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five steals vs. Lamar (Dec. 11). For the record, the last triple-double by a Ragin' Cajuns player came on Jan. 5, 2006 when Michael Southall scored 19 points with 12 rebounds and 11 blocks at North Texas.
. . . BUT PAYTON MUST WALK BEFORE HE RUNS: Although Elfrid Payton has flirted with a triple-double, it took him until the McNeese State game on Dec. 8 to record his first career double-double. Payton scored 17 points with 10 rebounds in the contest. It only took him three days to get the second, scoring 17 points with 11 rebounds vs. Lamar on Dec. 11.
MISTER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?: Elfrid Payton has shown his continued development as the Cajuns' point guard by handing out 75 assists this year to lead the Sun Belt averaging 5.0 assists per game. He matched his career high with nine assists at North Texas on Dec. 1, a career high originally set against North Texas in the Sun Belt Championship last year.
. . . AND GRAND THEFT FOR PAYTON: With 35 steals this season, Elfrid Payton has taken over the Sun Belt lead, averaging 2.3 steals per game. Payton had a career high seven steals at Michigan State on Nov. 25, falling one steal short of the school record, and came back to make four steals vs. Middle Tennessee. Last year, Payton lead the Cajuns with 37 steals.
IT WAS A LONG TIME COMING: The exhibition win over Loyola-New Orleans marked the Cajuns debut for forward Shawn Long. Long transferred to Louisiana last December after spending the fall semester at Mississippi State. The 6-9 native of Morgan City, La. practiced with the Cajuns during the final three months of the year but was not eligible to play. During the summer, he was granted a waiver of transfer rule that would have made him ineligible until early December, allowing him to play immediately. Eager to make up for the lost season, Long scored 11 of UL's first 18 points against Loyola, finishing the night with 17 points and a game-high eight rebounds, going seven-for-11 from the field with a pair of blocks.
. . . AND LONG HASN'T SLOWED: Shawn Long's steady play has allowed the freshman to lead the Cajuns in scoring (16.3), rebounding (9.7) and blocks (2.1), shooting .485 from the field (96-198) and .771 from the line (37-48). He ranks third in the league in scoring and rebounding, fourth in blocks, seventh in free throw percentage and 13th in field goal percentage. He has eight double-doubles and five 20-point games. He had a career-high 27 points in the win at North Texas (Dec. 1) and added 17 points anda c areer-high 17 rebounds at McNeese State (Dec. 8) the following week.
LONG IS DOUBLE-DOUBLE TROUBLE: A 10-point, 13-rebound effort against UALR on Dec. 29 gave redshirt freshman forward Shawn Long his eighth double-double in 15 games to lead the Sun Belt. South Alabama's Augustine Rubit has seven double-doubles.
. . . AND LONG SCORES THE BASKETBALL: Although it is still very early in the season, Shawn Long's five 20-point games has put the redshirt freshman on pace to record the most 20-plus point performances by a Cajun since former Sun Belt Player of the Year Tyren Johnson accomplished it 12 times in 2009-10.
GOING OVERTIME: The loss to Texas Southern on Nov. 16 marked the ninth time that the Cajuns have played to overtime under head coach Bob Marlin. Louisiana is now 6-3 in overtime games during that span, including a 4-1 record last season.
WRONKOSKI PROVES MARLIN RIGHT: Bob Marlin has said many times this fall that when he took over as head coach two years ago, one of the first recruits he looked at was Steven Wronkoski, deciding that the current UL freshman's spirited play would be perfect in a Cajun uniform. Wronkoski has yet to prove Marlin wrong, averaging 7.5 points and 3.1 rebounds this year. He posted back-to-back career highs of 12 points vs. SUNO on Nov. 21 and, in his first career start, 16 points at New Mexico State on Nov. 23. His Sun Belt debut was equally as strong as he scored all 13 of his points in the second half against Middle Tennessee on Nov. 29. Most recently, he raised his career high again, scoring 17 points at McNeese State on Dec. 8. For the year, Wronkoski is eighth in the Sun Belt in three-point shooting (15-37, .405) and is shooting .788 from the line (26-33).
NEXT UP: The Cajuns remain in south Florida, making the short trip down I-95 for a meeting with FIU on Saturday (Jan. 5). Louisiana then returns home to host South Alabama (Jan. 10) and Arkansas State (Jan. 12).
Complete Game Notes (PDF)
Game 16
Louisiana (6-9, 2-2) at Florida Atlantic (6-8, 2-2)
Date: Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Site: FAU Arena (5,000), Boca Raton, Fla.
Radio: KPEL (1420 AM) & KHXT (107.9 FM) (Jay Walker)
TV: None
Series: Louisiana Leads, 4-3
Last Meeting: UL 67, FAU 55 (12/31/11, Lafayette, La.)
THE COACHES:
LOUISIANA
BOB MARLIN (Mississippi State '81)
At Louisiana: 36-40 (3rd year)
4-Year Overall: 261-171 (15th year)
All Collegiate: 384-206 (20th year)
vs. FAU: 2-0
FLORIDA ATLANTIC
MIKE JARVIS (Northwestern '68)
At FAU: 59-80 (5th year)
Overall: 377-282 (24th year)
vs. Louisiana: 2-3
SETTING THE SCENE: Fresh off a stirring 79-70 win over UALR that put them into a first place tie in the Sun Belt west division, the Ragin' Cajuns travel to the state of Florida to open the new year with a pair of league games. Louisiana takes on Florida Atlantic on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 7:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. in Lafayette) in the FAU Arena. The Cajuns close out the trip on Saturday, Jan. 5 with a 7:30 p.m. EST contest at FIU. The Ragin' Cajuns enter the FAU game with a 6-9 record and in a first place tie with UALR and Arkansas State in the west division with a 2-2 record. FAU brings a 6-8 overall and 2-2 league record into the contest, but the Owls have dropped four of their last five games, including a 65-64 decision at ULM on Saturday. This will be the eighth meeting between FAU and Louisiana. The Cajuns own a 4-3 series edge, including a 67-55 win in Lafayette last year. The home court has been important in the series as the home team has won six of the seven contests.
PREVIEWING LOUISIANA: With a lineup featuring five freshmen and four sophomores, third year head coach Bob Marlin is excited about the possibilities for the 2012-13 season, knowing that the team that took the court in November will grow and improve all season. As the new faces get acclimated to the collegiate game, the Cajuns have leaned heavily on junior Bryant Mbamalu (12.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg) and sophomore sensation Elfrid Payton (13.7, 6.1, 5.0). Guard Alan-Michael Thompson (5.8 ppg), the lone senior on the squad, is also playing an increased role this year. Freshman forward Shawn Long (16.2 ppg, 9.7 rpg), a transfer from Mississippi State, and power forward Elridge Moore (5.5, 3.3), a JC transfer from Lamar State, will unite to form the nucleus of the inside game with freshman Cornell Barnett and walk-on Braylan Lazare providing the depth inside. Although Payton, Mbamalu and Thompson provide the athleticism, quickness and leadership, the freshmen trio of Steven Wronkoski (7.5, 3.1), Kasey Shepherd (3.0) and Josh Soto (3.8) also contribute, giving Louisiana a deep backcourt. Marlin is utilizing the depth and quickness by forcing an up-tempo game at both ends of the court by applying more defensive pressure. Look for the Cajuns to use their quickness and outside shooting ability to create a balanced offense, forcing opponents to cover the entire court.
ENJOYING A SWEEP: Saturday's sweep of UALR by the Ragin' Cajuns basketball teams, the men claiming a 79-70 win and the women earning a 56-54 double-overtime victory over a Trojan team that was 10-1 going into the game, marked the first sweep of a home doubleheader by Louisiana since the end of the 2009-10 season, a span of 12 twinbills. The Cajuns men's team has fared well in doubleheaders under head coach Bob Marlin, owning a 9-2 record at home and 5-5 on the road.
THE MBAM HAS GONE OFF: There is no hotter player in the Sun Belt than junior Bryant Mbamalu, who has scored 20 or more points in three of the last four games. Mbamalu started the run with a 21-point effort against Robert Morris on Dec. 18 and then followed it up with 22 points vs. Duquesne on Dec. 22. After a season low four points at Arkansas State on Dec. 27, he came back to score a season-high 26 vs. UALR on Saturday. Over the last four games, Mbamalu is averaging 18.3 points a game, shooting .643 from the field (27-42) and .529 from three-point (9-17). Those are considerably improved numbers over the .423 he shot from the field (41-97) and .340 from three-point (16-47) over the first 11 games.
PAYTON IS TWO SHORT OF LAST YEAR: With the Cajuns reaching the halfway point of the season this week, sophomore Elfrid Payton has made 35 steals, two short of the 37 he had last year in leading the team.
PAYTON & MBAMALU START ALONE: With Shawn Long coming off the bench for the first time this season at Arkansas State on Dec. 27, that leaves junior Bryant Mbamalu and sophomore Elfrid Payton as the only Cajuns to start every game this season. Long and Elridge Moore have each started 14 of the 15 games.
BARNETT BECOMES NINTH CAJUN TO START: When freshman Cornell Barnett started in place of Shawn Long at Arkansas State on Dec. 27, he became the ninth diffterent Ragin' Cajuns player to start at least one game this year.
. . . AND LOUISIANA USES A FIFTH DIFFERENT STARTING LINEUP: The youth of the Cajuns is evident this season in the head coach Bob Marlins has used five different starting lineups in the first 14 games. The group of Elfrid Payton, Bryant Mbamalu, Steven Wronkoski, Elridge Moore and Shawn Long have started nine times, leading UL to a 4-5 record. The only other group to start multiple games included Alan-Michael Thompson in place of Wronkoski, a lineup that started the first three games together. Last year, Marlin used 12 different starting lineups, including 10 different in the first 13 games before he settled on a lineup that started 15 of the final 21 games.
SUPPORTING CAST THE DIFFERENCE: The Louisiana bench has proven to be an important factor in determining sucess on the court this year. The Cajun bench has scored 20 points or more five times this year with UL going 4-1 in those games. In the six Cajun wins, the reserves have totalled 122 points (20.3 ppg). At the other end of the spectrum, the bench has produced 119 points in the nine losses (13.2 ppg).
. . . BUT THE ARKANSAS STATE GAME WAS THE OPPOSITE: The Louisiana bench was responsible for a season-high 42 points on Thursday night (Dec. 27) at Arkansas State but the scoring outburst didn't help as UL fell, 87-70. With the starting lineup producing just 28 points in the game, the bench came through as Alan-Michael Thompson scored 13 points while freshmen Josh Soto (10) and Kasey Shepherd (8) each set career highs. The 42 points was helped by 11 points from Shawn Long, who came off the bench for the first time this season.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF CHARITY: Bob Marlin said during the preseason that one area in which Louisiana would definitely show improvement is at the foul line, where the Cajuns shot just .631 (483-766) last year. So far, that prediction has come true as Louisiana has shot 70-percent or better from the line in nine of the 15 games and the Cajuns are just under .700 mark for the year. The Cajuns enter the Florida Atlantic game having gone 195-for-280 (.696). The last time that the Cajuns shot above 70-percent for an entire season came 20 seasons ago (1993-94) when they went 463-for-647 (.716).
. . . AND THE FRESHMEN LEAD THE WAY: The simplest way to improve a team's free throw shooting is to simply get better shooters and Bob Marlin has apparently done that. The four freshman currently on the Louisiana roster have made 71 of their 91 free throws this year (.780). Steven Wronkoski (26-33, .788) and Shawn Long (37-48, .771) lead the way.
CAJUNS BENEFIT FROM LATE FREE THROW SHOOTING: The free throw shooting by the Cajuns has been at its best late in the game as Louisiana has gone 71-for-88 (.807) from the line in the final 5:00 minutes and overtime. Shawn Long (10-10) and Steven Wronkoski (8-8) lead the team while Bryant Mbamalu, a career .780 shooter (32-41), is 11-for-12 this year (.917). That is a considerable improvement from the .617 (121-196) that the Cajuns shot during the 2011-12 season.
. . . FREE THROWS KEY WIN OVER UALR: Clutch free throw shooting was a key in Saturday's win over UALR as the Cajuns went 11-for-13 from the line in the final 2:03 of the game to deny the Trojans an opportunity to come back. After missing their first two attempts, Louisiana shooters knocked down their next 11 to finish the game. The game took a similar path on Dec. 1 at North Texas when the Cajuns went 11-for-14 (.786) from the stripe in the final 5:00, including seven-for-eight (.875) in the final 15 seconds to secure an 80-76 win.
LONG TRIES TO EQUAL FRESHMAN SCORING FEAT: With a 16.2 scoring average through 15 games and 2.6 points per game average ahead of second leading scorer Elfrid Payton (13.7 ppg), freshman Shawn Long is on pace to become just the fifth freshman to lead the team in scoring. He would join Tim Thompson (14.2 ppg in 1957-58), Jerry Flake (17.6, 1965-66), Andrew Toney (21.0, 1976-77) and Chris Gradnigo (9.6, 2007-08).
. . . AND A SCORING, REBOUNDS & BLOCKS ACCOMPLISHMENT: Shawn Long's impact is more than just being a scorer. Ranking third in the Sun Belt in scoring and rebounding (9.7) and fourth in blocks (2.1), Long is on a pace to become just the third player in school history to lead the team in all three stat categories in a single season. Tyren Johnson was the most recent, averaging 17.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 2009-10. Reginald Poole is the other to accomplish it, doing it in both 1996-97 (16.0, 10.3, 1.7) and 1998-99 (14.7, 7.1, 0.9).
CHASING A TRIPLE-DOUBLE: Sophomore Elfrid Payton continues to inch closer and closer to recording the first triple-double by a Ragin' Cajuns player in almost a decade. Payton closed the 2011-12 season with a 13-point, eight-rebound and nine-assist game in the opening round of the Sun Belt Championship. He toyed with the stat in the season opener against Oakland (14 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists), SUNO (11,7 , 7) and on Dec. 1 at North Texas (14, 6, 9) and went a different route at Michigan State (Nov. 25), scoring 20 points with six rebounds and a career-high seven steals. He came the closest yet in early December. He scored 17 points with 10 rebounds and seven assists at McNeese State (Dec. 8) and came back with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five steals vs. Lamar (Dec. 11). For the record, the last triple-double by a Ragin' Cajuns player came on Jan. 5, 2006 when Michael Southall scored 19 points with 12 rebounds and 11 blocks at North Texas.
. . . BUT PAYTON MUST WALK BEFORE HE RUNS: Although Elfrid Payton has flirted with a triple-double, it took him until the McNeese State game on Dec. 8 to record his first career double-double. Payton scored 17 points with 10 rebounds in the contest. It only took him three days to get the second, scoring 17 points with 11 rebounds vs. Lamar on Dec. 11.
MISTER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?: Elfrid Payton has shown his continued development as the Cajuns' point guard by handing out 75 assists this year to lead the Sun Belt averaging 5.0 assists per game. He matched his career high with nine assists at North Texas on Dec. 1, a career high originally set against North Texas in the Sun Belt Championship last year.
. . . AND GRAND THEFT FOR PAYTON: With 35 steals this season, Elfrid Payton has taken over the Sun Belt lead, averaging 2.3 steals per game. Payton had a career high seven steals at Michigan State on Nov. 25, falling one steal short of the school record, and came back to make four steals vs. Middle Tennessee. Last year, Payton lead the Cajuns with 37 steals.
IT WAS A LONG TIME COMING: The exhibition win over Loyola-New Orleans marked the Cajuns debut for forward Shawn Long. Long transferred to Louisiana last December after spending the fall semester at Mississippi State. The 6-9 native of Morgan City, La. practiced with the Cajuns during the final three months of the year but was not eligible to play. During the summer, he was granted a waiver of transfer rule that would have made him ineligible until early December, allowing him to play immediately. Eager to make up for the lost season, Long scored 11 of UL's first 18 points against Loyola, finishing the night with 17 points and a game-high eight rebounds, going seven-for-11 from the field with a pair of blocks.
. . . AND LONG HASN'T SLOWED: Shawn Long's steady play has allowed the freshman to lead the Cajuns in scoring (16.3), rebounding (9.7) and blocks (2.1), shooting .485 from the field (96-198) and .771 from the line (37-48). He ranks third in the league in scoring and rebounding, fourth in blocks, seventh in free throw percentage and 13th in field goal percentage. He has eight double-doubles and five 20-point games. He had a career-high 27 points in the win at North Texas (Dec. 1) and added 17 points anda c areer-high 17 rebounds at McNeese State (Dec. 8) the following week.
LONG IS DOUBLE-DOUBLE TROUBLE: A 10-point, 13-rebound effort against UALR on Dec. 29 gave redshirt freshman forward Shawn Long his eighth double-double in 15 games to lead the Sun Belt. South Alabama's Augustine Rubit has seven double-doubles.
. . . AND LONG SCORES THE BASKETBALL: Although it is still very early in the season, Shawn Long's five 20-point games has put the redshirt freshman on pace to record the most 20-plus point performances by a Cajun since former Sun Belt Player of the Year Tyren Johnson accomplished it 12 times in 2009-10.
GOING OVERTIME: The loss to Texas Southern on Nov. 16 marked the ninth time that the Cajuns have played to overtime under head coach Bob Marlin. Louisiana is now 6-3 in overtime games during that span, including a 4-1 record last season.
WRONKOSKI PROVES MARLIN RIGHT: Bob Marlin has said many times this fall that when he took over as head coach two years ago, one of the first recruits he looked at was Steven Wronkoski, deciding that the current UL freshman's spirited play would be perfect in a Cajun uniform. Wronkoski has yet to prove Marlin wrong, averaging 7.5 points and 3.1 rebounds this year. He posted back-to-back career highs of 12 points vs. SUNO on Nov. 21 and, in his first career start, 16 points at New Mexico State on Nov. 23. His Sun Belt debut was equally as strong as he scored all 13 of his points in the second half against Middle Tennessee on Nov. 29. Most recently, he raised his career high again, scoring 17 points at McNeese State on Dec. 8. For the year, Wronkoski is eighth in the Sun Belt in three-point shooting (15-37, .405) and is shooting .788 from the line (26-33).
NEXT UP: The Cajuns remain in south Florida, making the short trip down I-95 for a meeting with FIU on Saturday (Jan. 5). Louisiana then returns home to host South Alabama (Jan. 10) and Arkansas State (Jan. 12).
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