Cajuns Are After 18th Win When They Host Troy On Thursday

Contact: Brian McCann

Complete Game Notes (PDF)

Game 27
Troy (9-15, 4-8) at Louisiana (17-9, 8-5)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014
Time: 7:05 p.m. CST
Site: Cajundome (11,550), Lafayette, Louisiana
Radio: KPEL (1420 AM) & KHXT (107.9 FM) (Jay Walker)
TV: None
Series: Louisiana leads, 9-5
Last Meeting: Louisiana 72, Troy 59 (1/12/14, Troy, Ala.)

THE COACHES:
LOUISIANA
BOB MARLIN (Mississippi State '81)
At Louisiana: 60-60 (4th year)
4-Year Overall: 285-191 (16th year)
All Collegiate: 408-226 (21st year)
vs. Troy: 4-1

TROY
PHIL CUNNINGHAM (Campbellsville '90)
At Troy: 9-15 (1st year)
Overall: 9-15 (1st year)
vs. Louisiana: 0-1

SETTING THE SCENE: The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns will put its season-best five-game win streak on the line when the Cajuns host Troy on Thursday, Feb. 20 beginning at 7:05 p.m. in the Cajundome. Louisiana (17-9, 8-5) is playing its best basketball of the year, sweeping home games last week over UALR (93-87) and Arkansas State (85-67) to move from fifth to third in the Sun Belt standings. With five SBC games remaining, the Cajuns are one game behind second place WKU (9-4), a team they will play on March 6 in Bowling Green, Ky. The Cajuns claimed the first meeting with Troy, a 72-59 road decision that improved Louisiana to 9-5 all-time against the Trojans. First year head coach Phil Cunningham has the Trojans playing at their best, winning two of their last three games. They dropped a tough 81-76 decision at WKU on Thursday but bounced back to hand league-leading Georgia State its first league loss on Saturday

PREVIEWING LOUISIANA: As the Sun Belt season continues the second half of its season, Louisiana is 17-9 overall and 8-5 in league play, good for third place. The Cajuns have benefited from the return of five starters and 10 lettermen from last year's 13-20 team, leading fourth-year head coach Bob Marlin to feel confident that the Cajuns have taken a big step forward. The team is centered around the duo of point guard Elfrid Payton (19.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 5.9 apg, 2.5 spg) and forward Shawn Long (19.6 ppg, 10.6 rpg, 2.9 bpg), both of whom were named to the preseason All-Sun Belt first team this year. Long plays mostly at center with Elridge Moore (4.4, 3.5) playing at power forward and Bryant Mbamalu (9.6, 3.8), who started 26 games as a wing guard last season, is starting on the wing, opposite junior newcomer Xavian Rimmer (8.0, 2.0). The bench has been solid with junior Kevin Brown (6.2, 1.7) providing depth at guard, sophomore Steven Wronkoski (4.8, 2.3) seeing action both on the wing and at small forward and junior J.J. Davenport (4.2, 3.2), who played the last two seasons at New Mexico Junior College, playing at center. Injuries have hurt the Cajuns as Bryant Mbamalu (foot) missed the first 12 games, Elridge Moore (leg) was sidelined for five games and sophomore guard Kasey Shepherd (8.2, 2.4) is out indefinitely. The third unit consists of a trio of freshmen, Hayward Register (3.0) at guard, Luka Kamber (0.5, 1.3) at forward and Vieux Kande (1.1, 0.8) at center. Marlin is utilizing the depth and quickness by forcing an up-tempo game at both ends of the court by applying more defensive pressure. The Cajuns use their quickness and outside shooting ability to create a balanced offense, forcing opponents to cover the entire court.

LOUISIANA IN THE NCAA STATS: The Cajuns were featured prominently in the latest NCAA stats, which were released on Monday (Feb. 17). Shawn Long was fourth in double-doubles (14), ninth in rebounds (10.6), 11th in total field goals made (185), 23rd in blocks (2.9) and 35th in scoring (19.6). Junior Elfrid Payton was 11th in steals (2.5), 20th in assists (5.9) and 30th in scoring (19.9), owning one of nine triple-doubles in the nation this year. As a team, the Cajuns were 17th in scoring offense (81.4), 30th in steals (7.9) and 38th in three-point field goal defense (.307).

MAKING THE GRADE: One thing that head coach Bob Marlin has emphasized in his three seasons at Louisiana is the necessity that his players give 100-percent both on and off the court. This demand has led to positive results in the classroom. During the spring 2013 semester, the Ragin' Cajuns set a program record with a 2.904 grade point average for the team. They backed that up with a 2.854 during the recently completed fall semester, the second-highest average in the 31 years that athletics has tracked grades, with eight of the 15 players posting a 3.0 or better. In seven semesters under head coach Bob Marlin, the Cajuns have recorded seven of the top 10 semesters in program history.

PAYTON RECEIVES POW HONORS: For the second straight week, the Cajuns have swept the two weekly player of the week awards as junior guard Elfrid Payton was the recipient of both honors. Payton averaged 22.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 4.0 steals in leading the Cajuns past both UALR and Arkansas State last week. He shot .667 from the field (16-24) en route to registering his 14th and 15th 20-point gmes of the season.

LONG REACHES THE 1,000 POINT MARK: A 16-point effort against Arkansas State on Saturday allowed Shawn Long to become the 41st player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career and the fifth to accomplish it as a sophomore. Long begins the week with 1,001 career points. He is the second Cajun to reach the milestone this year, joining Elfrid Payton who now has 1,270 points (27th). Long joins Bo Lamar (1,631 points), Andrew Toney (1,269), Kevin Brooks (1,053) and Jerry Flake (1,042) as the 1,000-point sophomores.

. . . AND MBAMALU IS NEXT: A season-high 19-point game vs. Arkansas State has moved senior Bryant Mbamalu to within 72 points of being the 42nd player in school history to score 1,000 career points. With at least six games to go, Mbamalu needs to average 12.0 points a game to accomplish the feat. He scored 161 points as a freshman (2010-11), 233 as a sophomore (2011-12) and 400 last year as a junior. Mbamalu would already be over the 1,000-point mark had he not missed the first 12 games this year with a foot injury.

PAYTON EYES CAREER STEAL MARK: A season-high six steals in the win over Arkansas State on Saturday moved junior Elfrid Payton just four steals away from breaking the school career record of 184 steals set by Chris Manuel (1995-98). Payton had 37 steals as a freshman in 2011-12 and 80 in 2012-13, the third-highest single season total in school history. Payton has 64 steals this season.

2x1000: When Shawn Long surpassed the 1,000-point mark against Arkansas State on Saturday (Feb. 15) to join teammate Elfrid Payton as 1,000-point scoreres, it marked the seventh time in school history that two Cajuns accomplished the feat in the same season. It was also the 16th time that a team had two 1,000 point scorers on it. The last time the Cajuns had two players surpass the 1,000-point mark in the same year came in 2005-06 when Michael Southall and Dwayne Mitchell accomplished it.

. . . AND 3x1000: With Bryant Mbamalu on the cusp of 1,000 points for his career, it would mark only the fourth time that a Louisiana team had three 1,000-point scorers on it and the first time that all three went over the plateau in the same season. The first trio came in 1971-72 when career scoring leader Dwight "Bo" Lamar (3,493 points), Roy Ebron (1,683 points) and Paytion Townsend (1,240) accomplished it. It also happened in 1983 with Graylin Warner (1,762), Dion Brown (1,412) and Alonza Allen (1,211) and finally in 1993-94 with Michael Allen (1,673), Byron Starks (1,592) and Tony Moore (1,118).

PLAYING OVERTIME: Thursday night's double overtime win over UALR improved the Cajuns to 2-1 this year in overtime games and 8-5 in extra time in four seasons under head coach Bob Marlin. The three overtime games are the most in a season since Louisiana went 4-1 in OT in 2011-12, Marlin's second season with the Cajuns. The Cajuns are now 31-20 all-time in overtime games and 8-11 in double overtime contests.

CAJUNS RECORD 17TH WIN: The win over Arkansas State on Saturday was the 17th of the season for the Ragin' Cajuns, allowing them to surpass the previous highest win total in four seasons under head coach Bob Marlin (16 in 2011-12) and the most by a Louisiana team since the Cajuns went 20-10 in 2002-03. The victory also assures the Cajuns of finishing the season with a record above .500 for time since 2002-03.

HAYWARD REGISTERS A CAREER HIGH: With the Cajuns guards in early foul trouble at UT Arlington on Feb. 6, Bob Marlin turned to freshman Hayward Register, who was scoreless in the seven minutes of action in Sun Belt play this year. Register responded by scoring a career-high 17 points -- more than double his previous best of seven points -- going five-for-seven from three-point in 17 minutes. Register came back to score five points at Texas State, all five coming during the Cajuns' second half rally, and six vs UALR.

FINALLY SOME SUCCESS ON THURSDAY: With back-to-back Thursday night wins over UT Arlington (Feb. 6) and UALR (Feb. 13), the Cajuns improved to 2-4 this year when playing on Thursday.

SHOOTING IS THE DIFFERENCE: Saturday night's win over Arkansas State marked the 15th time that the Cajuns have shot better from the field than their opponent in a game this season with Louisiana being a perfect 15-0 in those games. At the other end of the spectrum, the Cajuns are just 2-9 when their opponents shoots a higher percentage from the field. Turnovers have proven to be unimportant this season as Louisiana is 8-4 when committing the same number or more turnovers than its opponent and 9-5 when committing less.

A SHOOTING PERFORMANCE FOR PAYTON: Elfrid Payton was quite efficient against ULM on Feb. 1, going 13-for-14 from the field on his way to scoring a game-high 28 points. The shooting effort was the second-best on the team this year, trailing only the school-record equalling 12-for-12 game by Shawn Long against Centenary. Payton enters the week ranking 10th in the Sun Belt shooting .505 (159-316).

. . . AND PAYTON HAS KEPT IT GOING: In the five games since Elfrid Payton had his 13-for-14 shooting night against ULM (Feb. 1), Payton has kept his shooting touch, going a combined 39-for-54 from the field (.722) to improve to .515 shooting for the season (175-340), good for 10th in the Sun Belt. Payton has shot .500 or better in four of the five games, including back-to-back eight-for-12 (.667) efforts. It is no coincidence that the Cajuns are 5-0 during this stretch.

DAVENPORT SHINES: With Shawn Long out of the lineup for the UALR game on Jan. 30, junior J.J. Davenport stepped up and turned in the best performance of his Cajuns career. Playing a career-high 27 minutes, Davenport registered his first career double-double, setting additional career highs with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He became the third Cajuns player to register a double-double this season, joining Long (13) and Payton (5). With Long in foul trouble vs. Arkansas State (Feb. 15), Davenport came back to scored eight of his 13 points in the decisive second half.

Cajuns Are After 18th Win When They Host Troy On Thursday

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