University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Little Rock
@RaginCajunsWBB Returns Home To Face Little Rock On Thursday
3/6/2019 3:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball
LAFAYETTE – After a long month on the road, with two out of the month's six games being played on the road, Louisiana Women's Basketball (7-20, 5-11 SBC) returns home to finish up the regular season starting with the Little Rock Trojans (17-10, 13-3 SBC) on Thursday, March 7, with tip at the CAJUNDOME set for 6:30 p.m.
HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN/FOLLOW: Thursday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+, with Dan McDonald and Lawana Stokes calling the game and a link to the broadcast can be found by clicking here. Steve Peloquin will handle the radio call, with the game being broadcast on ESPN1420AM. Live stats will be provided by the Louisiana Athletic Department and a link to the live stats can be found by clicking here.
PREVIEWING THE GAME: For the second-time this season, Louisiana and Little Rock will meet on the hardwood, with Little Rock taking the first meeting of the season on Jan. 5, 62-48, in a game played in Little Rock, Ark. It is the 10th straight season that Louisiana and Little Rock will have two meetings during the regular season, each hosting a game.
All-time Little Rock leads the series, 24-10, with the record at the CAJUNDOME sitting in Little Rock's favor, 10-7. Little Rock has won the previous three games played between the two sides, with Louisiana's last win coming on March 11, 2017 in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Women's Basketball Championships and the last win at home for Louisiana came on December 29, 2012.
REVIEWING THE PREVIOUS GAME: A fast start by Appalachian State was enough for the Mountaineers to come away with an 83-69 win over Louisiana on March 2 in Boone, N.C. Louisiana fell behind 39-22 after the first half, and it a hole that Louisiana could not climb out of in the second half, despite the Ragin' Cajuns matching App State basket for basket in the second half.
Freshman guard Andrea Cournoyer finished with a team-high 15 points on 5-for-12 from the field. Freshman guard Diamond Morrison had 12 points and junior Kendall Bess added 11 points to give Louisiana three scorers in double figures.
Junior guard Caroline Rivera finished with a career-high six points and three assists, with all six points coming in the fourth quarter.
OWNING THE CHARITY STRIPE: Freshman guard Brandi Williams has been a force at the charity stripe during her freshman season, shooting a Sun Belt Conference best 88 percent from the line (116-of-132) 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 TIES A LEGEND: Williams, who currently sits at 354 points scored on the season, is tied the late great Kim Perrot, at Appalachian State (Mar. 2) for the most points scored by a freshman in program history. Perrot eventually went on to score a school-record 2,157 points in her career.
COURNOYER BUZZES DEFENSES: Cournoyer has been a thorn in the side of opposing defenses, snagging a team-high 52 steals, for an average of 1.9 spg. placing her sixth in the conference and she is the leading freshmen in spg.
MATHIS DISHES IT OUT: Over the past nine games, sophomore guard Jomyra Mathis has been moving the ball well, averaging 2.2 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 27 games, she is averaging 13.1 points per game, the second most on the team, while shooting .440 percent from the field. The 13.1 ppg., rank Williams second on the team in scoring and when looking at the SBC, Williams is the leading scorer among freshmen.
HIGH FLYING FRESHMEN: Williams and Cournoyer have been scoring machines over 16 conference games, with Williams and Cournoyer both averaging high figures in Sun Belt play. Williams is averaging 15.1 ppg., and AC is averaging 9.9 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' 26 games played so far. Louisiana's freshmen have averaged 31.3 points per game total, which is just over half of the 62.0 points per game that Louisiana is averaging as a team and the four freshmen are shooting .377 percent playing a key part the team shooting percentage of .392.
WHAT THE TROJANS BRING: For the second time this season, Louisiana and Little Rock will face-off on the hardcourt. Louisiana fell, 62-48, at Little Rock in the previous meeting on Jan. 5.
Little Rock enters Thursday's game having won its precious two games, taking down Georgia Southern (Feb. 28) and Georgia State (Mar. 2). And the Trojans have won 11 out of their 13 games.
Little Rock sits atop the Sun Belt Conference in scoring defense and second in rebounding defense (34.3), turnover margin (+3.0) and assist/turnover ratio (1.0).
In scoring offense, Little Rock sits 11th in scoring offense and third in the Sun Belt in field goal percentage. The Trojans do shoot the three-point ball well, sitting second in the conference in three-point field goal percentage.
Little Rock's two leading scorers are each averaging over 14 points per game, with Ronjanae DeGray leading the way with 14.2 ppg., and Kyra Collier sitting right behind her at 14.0 ppg. DeGray sits eighth in the conference in scoring and Collier's 14.0 ppg., places her 11th in the Sun Belt.
Collier ranks first in the conference in steals per game (2.3) and third in free throw percentage (.828). While DeGray is eighth in the conference in field goal percentage (.489) and 10th in the conference in rebounding (6.7 rpg.).
Tori Lasker leads the team in three-point field goal percentage, shooting .425 percent and she is the second leading scorer on the team averaging 9.9 points per game.
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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