Women's Basketball Heads East To Face The Alabama Schools

LAFAYETTE – Looking to rebound from their previous weekend, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team hits the road for one final time in the 2017-18 season when they head to Alabama to face the Troy Trojans on Thursday, Feb. 22 (5 p.m.) and the South Alabama Jaguars on Feb. 24 (5:05 p.m.).

The Cajuns enter the weekend's action with their record sitting at 13-13 (8-6 SBC) and they're currently on a two-game skid after losing to Texas State (56-53) and UT Arlington (38-34) over the past weekend.

WATCHING/LISTENING/FOLLOWING: Thursday's game against Troy will be broadcast on ESPN3 with Barry McKnight and Hanna Cooper handling the commentary while Louisiana matchup in Mobile, Ala., will be streamed on usajaguars.com. As for radio, both games will be carried on KROF 960 AM with Jay Walker handling the call and live stats will be available via each school's respective athletic departments.

LOUISIANA STRUGGLES TO FIND THEIR SHOT: In the Cajuns last game, at the Cajundome, Louisiana lost the UT Arlington, 38-34, in a game where the Cajuns struggled to find any offense. While their defense held firm throughout the entire contest, they made only nine field goals in the game, and failed to score during the final nine minutes of the game to lose their second straight game.

DEFENSE IS STOUT: Despite losing to the Lady Mavericks on Saturday, the Cajuns defense was strong throughout and placed them in a position to win. The 38 points given up by the Cajuns is the lowest amount of points given up by the Cajuns this season and they least amount they've given up since allowing 38 vs. South Alabama on Feb. 9, 2017.

Over the past two games the Cajuns have given up only 94 points, and that's pushed their allowed points in Sun Belt Conference play down to 58.1 points allowed per game, and that's good enough to be placed second in the SBC in scoring defense.

FIRST ROUND BYE STILL IN THE CAJUNS SIGHTS: Despite Louisiana dropping their past to games, and sitting seventh in the conference, due to the log jam in the standings from fourth to eighth, the Cajuns can still make a push for a fourth-place finish that would give them a first round bye in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

Sitting ahead of them, both at 8-6, is Arkansas State (sixth) and South Alabama (fifth) and right ahead of the Jags is Troy who's sitting in fourth with a 9-5 conference record. What helps the Cajuns in their push for the top four is one simple fact, that the Cajuns' next three opponents are Troy (Feb. 22), South Alabama (Feb. 24) and Arkansas State (Mar. 1).

Simply put if the Cajuns take care of business over the next two weekends, they'll lock up the coveted top four finish and a first round bye in New Orleans at the conference tournament.

WHAT THE TROJANS BRING: Troy enters Thursday's game against the Cajuns having won their previous game against Appalachian State, 93-64, on Feb. 17 in Boone, N.C. and they've won seven of their last eight, including being the only team to have beaten the league leading Little Rock Trojans so far in conference play. The last time these two teams met, the Cajuns held Troy to 21 points under their scoring average but lost 62-55 at the Cajundome.

Troy hasn't slowed down offensively and their 82.2 points per game ranks them 15th in the NCAA and first in the conference. Where they're strong is on the boards, averaging 48.7 rebounds per game, which places them second in the country, and they're stealing the ball at an average of 11.4 per game, which again ranks them in the top 20 in the country at 16th.

As for players, the Trojans' Amber Rivers is leading the offense scoring 14.5 points per game, which places her sixth in the conference in scoring and Kayla Robinson is adding 12.8 points per game to give the Trojans two double digit scorers. Sky'Lynn Holmes is leading the way on the boards, with 190 rebounds (7.6 rpg) and that puts her seventh in the conference in rounding while Rivers sits right behind her in rebounds with 150 (6.0 rpg) and she's eighth in the conference in rebounding.

WHAT THE JAGUARS BRING: South Alabama enters the weekend reeling, having lost their previous five games. They'll host ULM on Thursday, Feb. 22, before welcoming Louisiana to Mobile, Ala. In fact, the last game the Jaguars won was against ULM in Monroe, La., and they've come close one other time when they lost 57-56 in overtime at Appalachian State on Feb. 15.

Chyna Ellis (13.8 ppg) and Savannah Jones (12.2 ppg) are leading the Jags in scoring while Ellis is adding 8.7 rebounds per game to lead the Jaguars in that category. Ellis leads South Alabama in blocks as well, having rejected 82 shots this season (3.3 bpg) and she's the second leading shooter nailing her shots with a percentage of .373. Genesis Perrymond leads the Jaguars in assists with 92 (3.7 apg) and right behind her is Shaforia Kines with 86 (3.6 apg) to give South Alabama a total of 400 assists (16.0 apg).

The 400 assists (16.0 apg) ranks them second in the conference and they're leading the conference in blocked shots having sent back 181 shots (7.2 bpg.). That impressive number of 7.2 bpg ranks them third in the NCAA in both blocks per game and blocks total. Ellis, who's leading the conference in blocked shots, ranks seventh in the land in blocks per game and ninth in the country in total blocked shots.

FOLLOWING THE RAGIN' CAJUNS: Follow the Cajuns on twitter @RaginCajunsWBB for updates during the game, links to the streaming of the game, live stats and a recap to the game following the conclusion of the action.

#GEAUXCAJUNS

Women's Basketball Heads East To Face The Alabama Schools

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