University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Coastal Carolina
@RaginCajunsWBB Gets Back On The Road, Heads To Coastal Carolina
2/27/2019 4:15:00 PM | Women's Basketball
CONWAY, S.C. – Louisiana Women's Basketball (7-18, 5-9 SBC) returns to the road for the first game of the Carolina swing with a visit to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (15-10, 7-7 SBC) on Thursday, Feb. 28, with tip at the HTC Center scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.
HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN/FOLLOW: Thursday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Zeke Beam and John Peters calling the game and a link to the broadcast can be found clicking here. Steve Peloquin will handle the radio call, with the game being broadcast on ESPN 1420AM. Live stats will be provided by the Coastal Carolina Athletic Department and a link to the live stats can be found by clicking here.
PREVIEWING THE GAME: This is the second meeting of the season between Coastal Carolina and Louisiana with the Chanticleers having visited the CAJUNDOME on Feb. 2, in a game that Coastal won 76-58. Louisiana will be visiting the HTC Center for only the second time in program history, with the previous visit coming on Feb. 25, 2017 in a game that the Chanticleers won.
Coastal enters the game having won its previous four games and the Chanticleers have won seven out of its last eight games. All-time the series is tied at 2-2, with Louisiana sitting at 0-1 at Coastal, 1-1 in Lafayette, La., and 1-0 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in the first meeting between the two programs back in 2003.
REVIEWING THE PREVIOUS GAME: Louisiana dropped a tough game at the CAJUNDOME against the Texas State Bobcats, 71-65, in a game that the Ragin' Cajuns led through the first three quarters before the Bobcats caught and passed Louisiana in the fourth quarter, in what was Louisiana's previous game, played on Feb. 23.Â
Louisiana did shoot 44 percent from the field in the game, but Texas State's Toshua Leavitt scored 18-second half points to help Texas State come away with the win.
During the game freshman guard Brandi Williams scored in bunches, finishing with a team-high 22 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field. She made her money from beyond the arc, shooting 4-for-7 from three-point land.
Williams also grabbed seven rebounds, and she was joined by sophomore center Ty'Reona Doucet's seven rebound, 13-point performance from off the bench as the two top performers for Louisiana.Â
Sophomore guard Jomyra Mathis and junior forward Kendall Bess each moved the ball well for Louisiana, with each recorded three assists in the game.
OWNING THE CHARITY STRIPE: Williams has been a force at the charity stripe during her freshman season, shooting a Sun Belt Conference best 88 percent from the line (112-of-128) and she is on pace to break the current school record of 82 percent set by Anna Petrakova during the 2003-04 season when she went 127-of-155 from the line.
WILLIAMS CLOSES ON A LEGEND: Williams, who currently sits at 336 points scored on the season, is closing in on the late great Kim Perrot for the most points scored by a freshman in program history. Perrot, who eventually went on to score a school-record 2,157 points, scored 354 points as a freshman, setting the freshman record at Louisiana.
COURNOYER BUZZES DEFENSES: Freshman guard Andrea Cournoyer has been a thorn in the side of opposing defenses, snagging a team-high 46 steals, for an average of 1.8 spg. placing her seventh in the conference and she is the leading freshmen in spg.
MATHIS DISHES IT OUT: Over the past seven games, Mathis has been moving the ball well, averaging 2.3 assists per game during that stretch. She recorded a conference season-high with five assists in Louisiana's game at Georgia Southern.
WILLIAMS HAS IMPRESSED: Williams has been impressive through 25 games, she is averaging 13.4 points per game, the second most on the team, while shooting .447 percent from the field. The 13.4 ppg., rank Williams second on the team in scoring and when looking at the SBC, Williams is the leading scorer among freshmen.
ROAD WARRIORS: During the month of February Louisiana will earn its frequent flyer miles, playing four out of its six games on the road. Louisiana will first make the Georgia swing, (Feb. 7-9), followed by a quick trip to Monroe, La. (Feb. 16), a one-game homestand against Texas State (Feb. 23) before wrapping up the month on the east coast with the Carolina swing (Feb. 28-Mar. 2).
HIGH FLYING FRESHMEN: Williams and Cournoyer have been scoring machines over 14 conference games, with Williams and Cournoyer both averaging high figures in Sun Belt play. Williams is averaging 15.9 ppg., and AC is averaging 9.8 points per game making Williams one and Cournoyer third in the conference for freshmen in terms of scoring.
LOUISIANA FRESHMEN HAVE BEEN KEY: Louisiana's four freshmen have played key parts on the court over the Ragin' Cajuns' 25 games played so far. Louisiana's freshmen have averaged 30.1 points per game total, which is just under half of the 61.8 points per game that Louisiana is averaging as a team and the four freshmen are shooting .376 percent playing a key part the team shooting percentage of .389.
WHAT THE CHANTICLEERS BRING: Coastal's previous game was in Atlanta, Ga., when the Chanticleers took down Georgia State, 67-62, to wrap up the Georgia swing sweep. The Chanticleers have been scoring at a high-rate and they sit second in the Sun Belt in scoring offense and field goal percentages and third in scoring margin. Defensively Coastal is middle of the road in the conference, giving up 66.7 points per game placing them seventh in the Sun Belt in scoring defense.
But the Chanticleers have defended shooters well, sitting third in field goal percentage defense and sixth in three-point field goal percentage defense.
Coastal has three players who are averaging in double-figures, with DJ Williams leading the way with 18.1 points per game, Caitlin Roche scoring 14.6 ppg., and Naheria Hamilton scoring 10.3 ppg.
Williams' 18.1 points per game places Williams at the top of the Sun Belt in scoring and she is 14th in the Sun Belt in field goal percentage. Williams is also strong on the boards, sitting ninth in the conference in rebounds per game (6.9).
Hamilton is just barley under averaging a double-double as she leads the Chanticleers in rebounds, averaging 8.1 rebounds per game which puts her sixth in the conference.
TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE: Both season tickets and individual game tickets for Louisiana Women's Basketball are available for purchase by either heading to ragincajuns.com/tickets or by calling the Louisiana Athletics Ticket Office at the CAJUNDOME, (337) 265-2357, or by visiting the office in person.
FOLLOWING THE RAGIN' CAJUNS:Â Follow the Ragin' Cajuns on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (@RaginCajunsWBB) to stay up-to-date with Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Women's Basketball.
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