The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns (10-3) wrapped up their non-conference slate on Friday afternoon on a down note with an 89-60 loss to the Clemson Tigers (11-1).
“Give Clemson credit, they’re an NCAA Tournament team,” head coach Bob Marlin said after the game. “They outplayed in every phase of the game. They’re bigger than we are, they’re stronger than we are and they shoot the ball better than we did today.
“We can’t give up 57 percent (shooting) and shoot 28 and expect to win, especially against a team like Clemson. Give their team some credit. I’m proud of our team for our performance from the free throw line, that was something that we could control. We did a good job on turnovers and had seven steals. But we had trouble scoring over their bigger players, inside and outside, and it hurt us today.”
The Cajuns took the lead early on in the first half thanks to a big dunk from JaKeenan Gant. However, that was short lived and the Tigers dominated for the much of the first half and took a 43-28 lead into the break.
The Cajuns got within 12 points with 9:57 left in the ballgame, but the Tigers shut the door thanks to a late layup from Elijah Thomas to increase their lead to over 20 points.
The Cajuns will open up conference play on December 29th when they take on Little Rock (3-10) with tipoff set for 7 pm.
-Clint Domingue