After a close loss against James Madison, the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns returned to the Cajundome, this time welcoming the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina. Hosana Kitenge and Joe Charles combined for 34 points to pace the Cajuns to a hard-fought 85-77 win.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Cajuns and the Chanticleers started sloppy on both ends, but Louisiana did a nice job of forcing freshman guard Jacob Myer into early foul trouble for Coastal. At the first media timeout with 15:36 remaining in the first half, Louisiana and Coastal were knotted up at 7-7.
The Cajuns exploded for 12 points over the next run, eight of them coming from Joe Charles to take a 19-12 lead with 11:49 remaining. Louisiana shot 43% from the field and 50% from three during the first eight minutes of the game.
Coastal answered with a big run of their own, outscoring Louisiana 12-2 to take a 24-21 lead at the under-eight media timeout. Charles held steady as the leading scorer for the Cajuns with eight on the night.
Louisiana ended the half outscoring Coastal 19-12 to take a 40-36 lead into the locker room. For the half, the Cajuns shot 46% from the field and 29% from downtown. Joe Charles led all scorers with 10 and Hosana Kitenge added eight for the Cajuns. Coastal was led by Kylan Blackmon with nine.
The Cajuns started the second half with five straight points to take a 45-36 lead, but the Chants cut it to two at the 15:00 media timeout of the second half.
Over the next several minutes, both teams traded positive offensive possessions to keep it close, tied at 57 with 11:42 remaining. Kitenge was the leading scorer with 16 to lead all players.
After trading baskets on each end, Charles hit two major threes and got a critical stop on the defensive end to give the Cajuns a little bit of a cushion and a 68-62 lead with 8:41 to go.
With 4:30 left in the game, both teams were still trading offensive buckets, but another critical steal on the defensive end led to an offensive rebound and putback from Charles to make it 74-67 in favor of the Cajuns.
Louisiana was able to steady things, getting fouled and converting at the line to pick up an 85-77 win over Coastal Carolina, their first win in the Sun Belt.
BIG NUMBER: 38
The duo of Joe Charles and Hosana Kitenge combined to give Louisiana 38 points on the night, really leading the way for the Cajuns to get their first conference win of the season.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Joe Charles
Carencro Joe was everywhere for the Cajuns in this one, scoring 18 points on 7-14 shooting including 4-7 from three. He also added 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 blocks, and 3 steals.
UP NEXT: Louisiana will be on the road for the next four games, starting with Troy on Wednesday before going to Arkansas State next Saturday.