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The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns welcomed the Auburn Tigers and nearly 6,000 Acadiana-area students for the 11th annual Education Game on Wednesday morning, Deyona Gaston was a dominant force for Auburn, scoring 29 points to lead the Tigers to a 68-51 win over the Cajuns.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Cajuns were riddled early on by poor decision-making and sloppy dribbling, leading to five turnovers in the first five minutes of the contest. However, good defense kept them in the game with an 8-4 deficit to Auburn. Half of the Tigers’ points came from the charity stripe, but it was enough to overcome shooting just 29% from the field.
Auburn went on a 7-0 run late in the first quarter to space the lead to 15-6, but UL could only manage one basket in the final two minutes to end the first quarter 16-8. The Cajuns finished the first quarter with 9 turnovers, shooting 44% from the field.
Louisiana had a really strong start to the second quarter, cutting the lead as close as four as they trailed Auburn 24-18 at the 3:59 mark of the first half. Lanay Wheaton led the Cajuns with eight, but it was Deyona Gaston leading all scorers with 13 for Auburn.
Auburn hit a buzzer-beating jumper and the Cajuns went scoreless for the final 2:54 of the second quarter as the Tigers led 29-19 at the break. Gaston continued to lead all scorers with 13 as both teams shot sub-40% from the field in the half.
Auburn started to run away with the game early in the third quarter with a 9-0 run to take a 38-19 lead with 6:59 left in the third. At the third quarter media timeout, the Tigers led 43-27 behind 20 points from Gaston on 8-14 shooting.
At the end of the third, Auburn’s lead was at 52-35 as the Tigers ended the quarter by hitting four of their last five shots in the quarter.
With 6:07 left in the game, Louisiana cut it to 13 points at 57-44 thanks to five points in the fourth quarter from Erica Lafayette.
Down the stretch, Louisiana tried to make it closer, but AUburn proved to be too much in a 68-51 final score.
BIG NUMBER: 44
Between Auburn and Louisiana, there were 44 total turnovers in the contest. Nine of the Cajuns’ 19 came in the first quarter as they forced 13 turnovers from Auburn in just the second half.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Deyona Gaston
Gaston continued to stack her averages with another 20+ point performance. She finished with 29 points on 12-20 shooting and 10 rebounds.
UP NEXT: Louisiana will welcome Dillard to the Cajundome for an exhibition on December 27 before opening Sun Belt play at Georgia Southern on December 29.