The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team came into Thursday night’s contest versus Texas State looking to get back to .500 on the season. The Bobcats would prove to be too much as the Cajuns dropped their seventh game out of their last nine to Texas State 82-73.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The game was even the first few minutes as Kobe Julien tied the game at seven with a three pointer at the 17:25 mark of the first half. Texas State would separate themselves very quickly as they went on a 12-0.
Louisiana fought back with forced turnovers and took the 24-20 lead. In their 17-1 run Theo Akwuba got in a couple of dunks and Brayan Au knocked down a couple of three’s.
Following another made three pointer by Julien, the Bobcats went on 15-2 run, with Caleb Asberry scoring seven for Texas State. The Cajuns scored a couple more times, including Greg Williams Jr hitting the buzz-beater three, but was still down 41-36 at the half.
Texas State kept themselves in control to start the second half as three different Bobcats scored as the Ragin’ Cajuns were down by five with under 16 minutes left in regulation.
Julien would cut the Louisiana deficit down to one with his fourth three of the game and made the backdoor layup. Shelby Adams and Mason Harrell extended the Bobcats lead to five. Julien made another layup, but missed the following free throw. Kentrell Garnett made the game tying three after Joe Charles got the offensive rebound.
The Cajuns and Bobcats went back-and-forth with Jordan Brown giving Louisiana the narrow one point lead as he made his second of two shots from the charity stripe.
At the 3:07 mark, Louisiana was down 74-65 after Small made a couple of free throws. The Cajuns would fight back, but ultimately fall to the Bobcats, 82-73.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Mason Harrell
Harrell led the way in both scoring and assists with 20 points and five assists as the Bobcats took down the Cajuns 82-73.
BIG NUMBER: 18
Another huge night for turnovers as Louisiana turned the ball over 18 times, including 12 in the first half.
NEXT UP: Louisiana (10-12, 5-7 SBC) returns to action on Saturday when it hosts UT Arlington. Tip off is set for 2:00 p.m.