Thursday was another rough night for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns with Dou Gueye missing the matchup due to the flu leaving the Cajuns with only nine players available to play against UT Arlington. That led to a lot of struggles throughout and ended with an 81-65 loss to the Mavericks to drop to 7-12 overall and 2-6 in Sun Belt Conference play.
How It Happened:
UT Arlington came out the gates strong, going out to a 10-4 lead with 17:21 left in the first half and they never relented that lead for much of the contest with a big highlight of that early run being a nice three-pointer from Jordan Phillips. The Cajuns did get within seven points around the halfway mark, but it didn’t last long with TiAndre Jackson-Young draining a pair of jump shots within 10 seconds of each other to make it an 11-point lead. Curtis Temple did make it an eight-point deficit though with a nice three-pointer as time expired in the first half, making it 50-41.
Jalen Johnson got the Cajuns within five early in the second half with a nice three-point shot to give him 21 points on the evening, but that was as close as they got with a 13-2 run by UT Arlington put them well in control of the matchup. From that point on, the Mavericks kept things under control and came away with their first win at the Cajundome since 2015 in emphatic fashion.
Big Number: 30
The bench for the Mavericks really dominated the game with 30 of their 81 points coming from outside of the starting five. It was all about Jackson-Young though with 18 points off the bench helped UT Arlington keep their starting five fresh.
Player of the Game: Jalen Johnson
Johnson had a great performance in a losing effort, leading the way with 23 points and eight rebounds on the night. Obviously it wasn’t enough, but a step in the right direction for the Cajuns star forward.
Next Up: Saturday vs Texas State; Tipoff at 7 pm