Cajuns Get By Georgia Southern For Fourth Straight Win

LAFAYETTE, La. – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns hit a dozen three-point buckets and held Georgia Southern to less than 26-percent shooting in the second half in denying the Eagles sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt Conference with a 68-58 win on Saturday night at the Cajundome.

Sophomore point guard Jay Wright - whose Rincon, Ga., home is less than an hour from the Georgia Southern (20-7, 13-5 SBC) campus - tied his season high with 20 points to lead all scorers, hitting a season-high four three-point buckets to go with four assists and two steals in helping the Cajuns (17-12, 11-7 SBC) pick up their fourth consecutive victory of the season.

The win avenged a 78-70 loss to the Eagles early in the league slate, and has the Cajuns all alone in fourth place in the SBC, two games back of league tri-leaders Georgia Southern, Georgia State and ULM. With two games to play, the Cajuns find themselves positioned well to earn a first-round bye in the upcoming SBC Tournament.

Louisiana hit 12-for-24 from beyond the arc in making their most threes in a game since a 37-point win over Arkansas State on Jan. 22. Most of the damage came from Wright and Hayward Register who hit four triples apiece, going a combined 8-for-12 from three.

But moreso, the Cajuns turned up the defensive intensity once again, holding the Eagles to just 34.9 percent for the game, its third consecutive game to hold an opponent below the 35-percent mark. Georgia Southern hit 46.4 percent from the field in the first half, but was just 9-for-35 (25.7) shooting in the second half, including just 2-for-15 from three-point range.

Jelani Hewitt led Georgia Southern with 17 points on the night, but went just 6-for-19 from the floor and 1-for-10 from three in doing so.

Register finished with 14 points on the night, while Shawn Long joined Wright and Register in double figures with an 11-point, 12-rebound performance that accounted for his 50^th double-double of his career. He also added a pair of blocks, giving him 200 for his career as a Cajun, the second most in school history.

Kasey Shepherd also chipped in nine points off the bench, none bigger than his second three of the night when Bryce Washington found him all alone in the right corner with 1:10 left on the clock to stretch the Cajun lead back to six after the Eagles had cut the game to 61-58.

It was Washington's lone assist of the night, but the freshman hauled in eight of UL's 41 rebounds. Fellow freshman Johnathan Stove dished out a team-high five assists.

The Cajuns came out on fire from beyond the arc, with each of their first five field goals being threes. Three separate players connected on triples during an 11-2 run out of the gate for UL, including the third from Register.

Georgia Southern climbed back into it, though, and got a three from Hewitt to pull back to within two at 18-16 with 9:23 left in the half. But Stove responded with an and-one play, sparking a 9-2 Louisiana run that pushed the lead to its highest of the half at 27-16 with less than seven minutes remaining.

Still, the Eagles managed to take a brief lead late in the half on a three from Curtis Diamond before Long followed up his sixth rebound of the half with a one-handed slam to give the Cajuns a 34-33 lead at the break.

The Eagles led once more early in the second half when Trent Wiedeman converted a three-point play to put them up 36-34, but the Cajuns scored the next seven points and never surrendered the lead the rest of the way.

The UL lead got up to nine on an 8-2 Cajun run that was bookended by a pair of Register threes, the second coming with 13:07 to play to give the Cajuns a 49-40 advantage.

Less than two minutes later Stove found Register for another triple, and less than 90 seconds later Wright stepped into one of his own to grow the advantage to 55-44 with just under 10 minutes to play.

But Georgia Southern wasn't done yet, scoring six straight points to get back to 59-55. Register nailed a free-throw line jumper with 5:04 to go to up the lead back to six; however, the Cajuns followed that up by going nearly four minutes without a field goal while missing three foul shots before Jake Allsmiller eventually came up with a loose ball and nailed his third three of the night to make it a 61-58 Cajun advantage.

The Eagles got it back after a Cajun turnover on the next possession, but Hewitt could not connect on a possible game-tying three and UL followed that up with Shepherd's clutch triple the next time down the floor before making all four of its foul shots in the final minute to ice it.

Louisiana will next host UALR on Thursday in the final game at the Cajundome this season before heading to Arkansas State for the regular-season finale on Saturday.

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Team Stats

Jay Wright

Hayward Register

Shawn Long

Kasey Shepherd

Players Mentioned

Shawn Long

Hayward Register

Kasey Shepherd

Johnathan Stove

Bryce Washington

Jay Wright