Cajuns Missed Opportunities In UALR Loss

Missed shots. Missed free throws. Missed opportunities. That was the story from the Cajundome Thursday night as Louisiana faced off against Arkansas-Little Rock and came away from the game thinking about what might have been in a 72-70 overtime loss.

Overcoming a slow start in which they fell behind by 12, 16-14, the Cajuns came raging back to take a 29-26 lead into the locker room.

And the second stanza continued the rhythm of the first, which was obviously a source of consternation for J.J. Thomas, who finished with 13 points in the losing effort.

“We just got off to a slow start at the beginning of both halves,” Thomas stated. “You can’t blame the refs. We were out there playing.”

Of course, many of the 4,125 in attendance would point an accusatory finger at the men in stripes, who were roundly criticized for a spate of questionable calls. But that’s par for the course in the Sun Belt.

It could have been the calls, but no. This one slipped away at the hands of more experienced shooters who scorched the nets when it really, really mattered.

The Cajuns seemingly had the game in hand near the end of regulation until Will Neighbour and Chuck Guy drained big time three pointers in the last 20 seconds to knot the score at 65 and send the game into overtime.

Neighbour and Guy were defended. But their shots were daggers that pierced the hopes of Cajuns like Thomas and Kadeem Coleby, who finished with 18 points of his own, most of them made of shots in close proximity to the bucket.

“We didn’t take advantage of the opportunities out there tonight,” Thomas said, summing it up.

Cajuns’ coach Bob Marlin echoed those sentiments, but admitted that the loss, which dropped the Cajuns a game and a half behind the Trojans in the standings made it more difficult for Louisiana (14-12, 8-4) to secure a coveted first round tournament bye.

“We’re trying to win every game. We’re going to have to do our part to get one of those slots,” Marlin said. “We need to take care of business and win.”

That effort begins again this Saturday, as the Cajuns host Arkansas State at 7:15 in the first of four remaining SBC contests that will determine the team’s fate heading into the Conference tournament March 3-6 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.