Women's Basketball Hosts ASU And LR To Finish Regular Season

LAFAYETTE – After splitting their final road swing of the season, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team (14-14, 9-7 SBC) returns to the Cajundome for one last weekend at home when they host the Arkansas State Red Wolves on Thursday, Mar. 1 and the Little Rock Trojans on Saturday, Mar. 3 to wrap up the 2017-18 regular season.

HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN/FOLLOW: Both games, with Thursday's matchup starting at 5 p.m. and Saturday's matchup starting at 4 p.m., will be streamed live on the Ragin' Cajuns Digital Network (Dan McDonald, play-by-play) and carried on ESPN 1420 with Jay Walker handling the call for both games. Live stats will be available as well for both games and links can be found on the both the home page and schedule page for the Cajuns women's basketball team at RaginCajuns.com.

IT'S A BIDDY/SENIOR KIND OF WEEKEND: Thursday night's game is Biddy Night and the Cajuns will be celebrating all of the Biddy programs in the surrounding areas. Come to the Dome wearing your Biddy uniform and you can get into the game for free.

Saturday night's game will be senior night, with the Cajuns honoring their seniors before the game. The four seniors are, Simone Fields, Nekia Jones, Troi Swain and Kendra Howard. Come out early and thank the Cajuns seniors for everything they've done for the team as they move onto to their next phase in life.

LAST TIME OUT: Louisiana snapped their three-game losing streak with a hard fought, but well earned, win at South Alabama on Saturday, Feb. 24, 59-56. It came down to the wire, but Cajuns freshman Jomyra Mathis came up big with six second left when she grabbed a big rebound on a missed three-point attempt from South Alabama and two icing free throws on the reverse end of that rebound to help finish off the Jaguars.

Freshman Ty'Reonne Doucet led the Cajuns in scoring, with 15 points and Mathis finished with six points and six rebounds. Swain tied a career high with eight rebounds, to lead the Cajuns on the boards while sophomore Kimberly Burton had seven points and five rebounds on the night.

CAJUNS PLANTING THEIR SEED: As for where the Cajuns will finish in the Sun Belt Conference standings, things are a little bit complicated. Barring a complete collapse from Troy in Georgia this weekend, the Cajuns can't finish in fourth place. Therefore, the Cajuns will spend the weekend fighting for either a fifth, sixth or seventh place finish.

What makes things complicated is the fact that in those three spots are Arkansas State, South Alabama and the Cajuns all sitting at 9-7. A win from the Cajuns against Arkansas State, and a loss to Little Rock would more than likely lock up a sixth-place finish. But if the Cajuns win both games this weekend, and South Alabama wins both games in Georgia, it becomes complicated with tiebreakers.

The most likely scenario is that the Cajuns will finish sixth place in the standings, but the chips may still fall in their favor and a fifth-place finish is still within reach for the Cajuns. Two losses this weekend would lock the Cajuns into the seventh-place finish. Overall the entire log jam is sloppy, but the Cajuns will look to handle their end of the bargain and see how things play out.

WHAT THE RED WOLVES BRING: Arkansas State enters the game a part of the log jam that is the middle of the Sun Belt Conference, and after losing their previous game to Coastal Carolina their record sits at 14-13 (9-7 SBC). They're scoring 66.3 points per game, which puts them third in the conference in scoring and they sit ninth in the conference in defensive scoring (69.7 points per game). They've protected the rim well, blocking 103 shots (3.8 bpg) and that puts them second in the conference.

Akasha Westbrook leads the Red Wolves in scoring as she's averaged 13.7 points per game, while right behind her is Jada Ford, who's scoring 11.1 points per game. Westbrook not only leads in scoring, but she leads the team in steals, 67 (2.5 spg), assists with 50 (1.9 apg) and she's shooting a team high .484 from the field.

WHAT THE TROJANS BRING: Little Rock enters the weekend, where they'll first play ULM in Monroe, La., on Thursday, having already clinched the Sun Belt Conference regular season championship and they sit at the top of the conference with their record sitting at 18-9 (15-1 SBC). They've won their previous three games, having lost their first conference game of the season at Troy back on Feb. 10, and they've given up an average of 45.7 points per game during that three-game stretch.

Overall the Trojans defense has been impressive giving up 52.7 points per game, which ranks them first in the conference and fifth in the NCAA. Offensively they're only scoring 58.9 points per game but because of their impressive defense they're scoring margin sits at 6.2. They have the best field goal percentage in the conference (.420) and their third in the conference in three-point field goal percentage defense (.298).

Ronjanae DeGray is leading the Trojans in scoring (13.9 ppg) and rebounds averaging 5.4 boards per game. DeGray is also shooting .514 percent from the field which puts her second right behind Keanna Keys (.528). Keys ranks second in the conference in FG percentage and DeGray is third. Leading the charge in assists is Monique Townson who's got 106 assists (4.1 apg) and that puts her third in the conference and second in the conference in assist to turnover ratio (2.0).

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

#GEAUXCAJUNS

Women's Basketball Hosts ASU And LR To Finish Regular Season

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Players Mentioned

Kimberly Burton

Ty'Reona Doucet

Simone Fields

Kendra Howard

Nekia Jones

Jomyra Mathis

Troi Swain

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