The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns hosted the Xavier Gold Rush in the Cajundome on Wednesday evening. The Cajuns in an impressive shooting night from deep would go on to defeated the Gold Rush 84-72.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Louisiana jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first minute as Theo Akwuba drilled his first two free throws and Kobe Julien made a layup off an Xavier turnover. Corey Dunning hit the first shot for Xavier as the Rush would go on a quick 9-3 run. The Cajuns followed that by having a 17-2 run, initially started by a couple of Jordan Brown layups, then a Greg Williams Jr three pointer. Michael Thomas and Jalen Dalcourt hit three’s of their own in the run to put the lead to 24-11 before the halfway point of the first half.
Xavier’s Rayshawn Mart quickly responded with a three and Jalen King dunked the ball soon after to cut the Cajun lead down to single digits. The rest of the first half was back-and-forth, but Louisiana outscored them 17-12 in the final nine minutes of the half, including Brown scoring eight of those points. The Ragin’ Cajuns went into halftime with a 43-28 lead.
Coming out for the second half, Mart made a quick layup. Akwuba opened up the Cajuns scoring as he slammed the ball and made the and-1 free throw. A 90 second drought of no scoring happened before Mart hit another jumper and Brown hit his second three pointer of three pointer of the contest thanks to the assist from Antwann Jones. It was back-and-forth again as both teams scored 17 points each to the halfway point of the second half.
The Cajuns had a 66-53 lead at the 10 minute mark, as the next minute included numerous missed shots as neither team could put the ball in the basket. Dunning ended the with a successful free throw attempt. Louisiana were able to get a nice 14-7 run going to cushion their lead. Akwuba got it going with a couple of made shots and Williams Jr came right behind him with his second made three of the game. Brown got in a dunk and Ty Harper made two free throws before Kentrell Garnett dropped one in from deep. Xavier cut their deficit down to 12 as they scored 11 of the game’s final 15 points, but the Ragin’ Cajuns move to 3-0 on the season with an 84-72 victory.
BIG NUMBER: 58.8
The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns as a team shot an insane 58.8 percent from three point range to put them above Xavier.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jordan Brown
Brown was the team leader in points with 18 as he shot seven for 11 from the floor. Brown grabbed an additional six boards in the Wednesday night win.
UP NEXT: @Indiana on Saturday November 21st. Tipoff set for 6:30.