With Thursday night’s 66-49 victory over visiting South Alabama, the Louisiana women’s basketball team climbed above .500 for the first time since December 29th.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The two teams traded buckets back and forth for the first few minutes of the first quarter, and the game was tied 9-9 after a jumper by South Alabama’s Zena Elias.
Louisiana took the lead on a Lanay Wheaton three-pointer but South Alabama answered with a driving layup by Jordan Rosier. At the end of the first, the Ragin’ Cajuns led 15-14.
Louisiana took control to start the second as the Ragin’ Cajuns began the period on a 8-2 run, capped with Tamera Johnson scoring a layup off of a turnover.
With 4:38 left in second, USA was able to cut the lead down to five with a Casey Ferguson jumper. Louisiana closed out the first half with a 9-3 run and held a 35-24 lead at the break.
After pushing its lead up to 13 twice to start the third, Louisiana led by 14 as a layup by Jaylyn James. The Ragin’ Cajuns pushed the lead up to 19 after a jumper by Wheaton with 2:20 left in the period.
Louisiana maintained its double-digit lead during the fourth quarter as the Ragin’ Cajuns picked up their third Sun Belt Conference victory of the season.
BIG NUMBER: 34
The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns scored 34 of their 66 points in the paint during Thursday’s SBC victory.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME: LANAY WHEATON & TAMERA JOHNSON
Wheaton led the Ragin’ Cajuns with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting while also pulling down 8 rebounds. Johnson meanwhile had 16 points and a team-high 8 rebounds.
UP NEXT: Louisiana (9-8, 3-2 SBC) will travel to play at Troy on Saturday. Tip is set for 4 p.m.