The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team lost 79-73 to the Troy Trojans on Wednesday night inside Trojan Arena in Troy, Alabama. The loss moves the Cajuns to 1-3 in Sun Belt Conference play.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The game began with a 4-0 Louisiana run. However, neither team would lead by more than that for the first segment of play. The teams traded buckets until a Kentrell Garnett basket made it 16-10 Louisiana with 12:38 to play in the first half.
After that, Troy went on a 7-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 17-16. That run began another stretch of trading points, as neither team led by more than three until the under four-minute media timeout. At that point, a 26-26 tie was met with a 5-0 Trojan run to take a 31-26 lead. The largest lead of the half was taken by Troy when Aamer Muhammed made two free throws to make it 35-28. The halftime score would be 37-30, with 10 Louisiana turnovers in the first half being costly.
The second half began with Troy extending its largest lead to nine at 39-30. That was answered with a Kobe Julien three which would spark a 7-0 run to make it 39-37. However, Troy answered that with a 9-2 run of their own. Louisiana just struggled to gain traction in creating a comeback.
When the lead got to 52-43, the Cajuns finally put together a run to cut into it. Seven points in just 37 seconds cut the lead to 52-50. Louisiana then finally retook the lead with two free throws from Hosana Kitenge to make it 54-53.
From there, the teams went back and forth. The lead changed hands multiple times down the stretch and neither team could stretch out the lead. Inside of two minutes left, Troy had a one-point lead at 66-65. They earned two free throws, made them both, and then forced a turnover and made two more free throws. That made the lead 70-65. Despite a Kitenge bucket to get it back to a one-score game, Troy went on an 8-2 run led by Christyon Eugene to put the game away, finishing it with a 79-73 win.
BIG NUMBER: 20
Louisiana turned the ball over 20 times, and it was costly throughout. It prevented their big runs from taking over, and ultimately led to their road loss.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Christyon Eugene
Eugene ended with 22 points on an ultra-efficient 7-9 shooting from the field. He added seven rebounds as well to lift Troy.
UP NEXT: The Cajuns will continue their road trip, heading to Jonesboro to face Arkansas State on Saturday, January 13th at 2:30 PM.