After getting their first win of the season vs UT Dallas, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns headed west for a Wednesday night matchup against the Houston Cougars. It was a slow start but Houston picked up the pace and dominated Louisiana on their home floor. The Cajuns dropped to 1-2 on the season with the 91-45 loss.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The defensive side of the ball dominated the game early on. There were eight missed shots and four turnovers between both teams in the first three minutes. Houston scored the game’s first point off of a Ja’Vier Francis free throw and the first basket was a put-back layup from J’Wan Roberts.
Louisiana then went on a 10-3 with Kentrell Garnett knocking down the right-wing three to begin. Kyndall Davis followed that up with a layup and mid-range jumper before Chancellor White hit a high-arcing three over a Cougar defender. The Cajuns were ahead 10-6 at the 14:06 mark.
Houston responded with a 14-0 run in almost four minutes. Emanuel Sharp scored the first seven points of the run with a free throw and back-to-back threes. The Cougars also scored off a couple of steals and Mercy Miller capped the run with a shot from downtown before Koron Davis made Louisiana’s third three-point shot with 10:31 remaining in the first half.
The Cajuns continued to turn the ball over and give away more points to the Cougars, including Miller getting a steal and the transition layup before knocking down a couple from the charity stripe. It was also a free throw contest early in the back half of the first half as Houston extended their lead.
The Cougars concluded the first half with a 15-2 run with L.J. Cryer and Milos Uzan hitting a three. Louisiana went into halftime down 51-25.
Houston began the second half with a 10-2 run as Francis hit a hit-range shot while Roberts had an and-one layup and scored a minute later after Sharp got an offensive rebound.
There was almost a three-minute scoring drought and Davis ended it with a made free throw and Uzan found Joseph Tugler for a dunk. The slam put the Cougars up 65-28 with 13:46 remaining. The next basket didn’t come for another two and a half minutes until Ramon Walker got the steal and layup off Mostapha El Moutaouakkil.
El Moutaouakkil ended the Cajuns’ scoring drought with a layup with 10:08 left. That was Louisiana’s first basket since Garnett scored 51 seconds into the second half.
Houston extended their lead late, going on a 22-10 run at the 3:13 mark of the second half. Terrence Arceneaux had 12 points during the run and Mylik Wilson capped it off with a steal and transition dunk.
Christian Landry checked in late and made the three-pointer with under a minute to go and Houston dribbled out the rest of the clock off a miss. The Cajuns dropped to 1-2 with the 91-45 loss to the Cougars.
BIG NUMBER: 23
The Houston defense put Louisiana in tough situations all game long. The Cajuns turned the ball over 23 times while the Cougars gave it away 10 times. Houston also recorded more steals (17) than the Vermilion and White had made field goals (15).
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Milos Uzan
Uzan did a little bit of everything on Wednesday evening, scoring 13 points on 5-9 shooting while grabbing four rebounds and dishing five assists as the Houston Cougars took down the Cajuns 91-45.
UP NEXT: The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (1-2) will return home and play next Tuesday, November 19th. Their matchup will be against the Rice Owls (2-1), and tip-off will be inside the Cajundome at 7:30 p.m.