Led by the hot hand of Kobe Julien, the Louisiana men’s basketball team defeated their old I-10 rival McNeese State 83-68 on Wednesday night. The Ragin’ Cajuns improved to a 5-3 overall on the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Julien set the tone from the opening tip as he drained a three pointer to give Louisiana a quick 3-0 lead. McNeese responded with a 8-0 run with Zach Scott leading the charge with four points.
Louisiana answered with a layup by Isaiah Richards and a turnaround jumper by Julien as the two teams would trade buckets the next few minutes. With 14:01 left in the first, the game was tied 14-14.
Louisiana tried to pull away as Julien hit a pair of three pointers in a span of a minute and a half. McNeese responded again and with 5:20 left in the half, the Cowboys held a 29-26 advantage.
Louisiana would close out the first half on a 20-6 run highlighted by Kentrell Garnett hitting back-to-back three pointers, and an alleyoop dunk from Brown to Jordan Brown.
At the break, Louisiana led 45-35.
McNeese managed to cut the lead down to five points with a 6-0 run featuring a pair of layups by Myles Lewis. Louisiana responded by quickly pushing the lead back to double digits and maintained that advantage the rest of the game.
BIG NUMBER: 70.0
Louisiana shot extremely well from beyond the arc in Wednesday nights’ game against McNeese. The Ragin’ Cajuns shot 70 percent from three-point range in the first half, the Ragin’ Cajuns would cool off some in the second half but still finished the game with shooting 52.4 percent (11-of-21).
PLAYERS OF THE GAME: KOBE JULIEN & JORDAN BROWN
Julien started off hot and never cooled off in the first half as he was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, including 4-for-4 from three-point range, and had 18 points at the break. Julien would finish the game with 20 points. Brown meanwhile recorded a double-double as he scored 16 points and pulled down 16 rebounds in the win.
UP NEXT: Louisiana (5-3) returns to action on Saturday with a road game at Louisiana Tech. Tip is set for 11 a.m.