The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns (5-2) had a rough start on Tuesday night against the McNeese State Cowboys (2-4), but were able to come away with a big 89-78 win.
After a rough start, the Cajuns fired back in a big way with a 23-2 run to take a decisive lead before the first timeout. However, the Cowboys were able to capitalize on a scoring drought late in the first half to get the lead down to single digits thanks to a last-second jumper from Jarren Greenwood to make it 36-28 at the break.
The lead for the Cajuns began to grow early in the second half with some solid shooting from three, especially from Malik Marquetti who went 4-of-5 from beyond the arc in the second half. It started to get a little dicey late in the ballgame with a 12-2 run by the Cowboys, but it was too little too late as the lead that the Cajuns built up was a little too much.
The Cajuns will hit the road to take on Nicholls State in Thibodaux with tipoff set for 7 pm.
Three Point Play:
Stove Gets Hot: It’s been a while since the Cajuns had Jonathan Stove in the lineup after he suffered an injury in the season-opening loss to Ole Miss. The senior made his return to the court with 11:30 left in the first half off the bench and made the most of his time on the court.
Stove racked up 11 points, one rebound, one assist, and a block in the 21 minutes he had on the court. At the end of the day, he was just happy to be back on the floor.
“It was great, I’ve been fiending to get back out since I got hurt.” Stove said after the game, “They’ve been keeping my spirits good though by winning and playing good. It just felt great to be honest to be out there with the team; I’ve been trying to practice and stuff like that but to be actually on the floor feels great.”
Opportunistic Offense: One of the biggest keys to the Cajuns double-digit win was capitalizing on the Cowboys mistakes offensively. On the 16 turnovers, the Cajuns got 28 points off of them with 12 of them in the first half.
“Defensively, it’s the best kind of runs after a turnover or a corner three.” Bob Marlin said about the defense helping set the tone during the big run in the first half, “We were able to get stops, get loose, bust out with the ball, and get ahead of them especially early in the game. It was big for us.”
Stroman Goes Down: While it was a positive night for the Cajuns with a win over an in-state rival, the Cajuns had Marcus Stroman go down with an injury. Stroman was hit in his right hip and wound up being brought to the back to receive an injection. Marlin has a plan in place if the Cajuns are without him for an extended time, but hopes to have him ready for Friday against Nicholls.
“Malik has played the backup point some. We put PJ out there tonight he’s lost a little bit of confidence and hasn’t played like he did earlier in the year and in practice.” Marlin said of his options at point guard, “Cedric can play it and if we have to, we can play Bryce at the point. Hopefully we’ll get Marcus moving the next couple of days and we’ll need him on Friday night.”
-Clint Domingue