Cajuns' Rally to Defeat Red Wolves

Louisiana's Ragin'Cajuns defense held Arkansas State to two points in the final 4:45 to help seal the victory over the Red Wolves 54-50.

The run was jumpstarted by Jeremy Barr who made a jumper in the paint at 4:24 as he was fouled by Shawn Morgan. He made the free throw to slice the ASU lead to 48-46.

After the Red Wolves (13-12, 5-9 Sun Belt) got two free throws from Larry Handy at 4:12 for a four-point lead, Barr spun through traffic for a one-handed slam at 3:51 which helped the Cajuns (9-16, 6-8 Sun Belt) keep pace.

Louisiana then turned to its defense to force a turnover. Coming out of the three-minute media timeout, Chris Gradnigo connected on his only three-pointer of the game to push UL ahead 51-50 with 3:13 remaining.

Defense sealed the Cajuns’ victory as with a two-point lead, 52-50, a blocked shot by Tyren Johnson led to a fastbreak in which Travis Bureau dunked the basketball to up the advantage to 54-50 with only 16 seconds showing on the scoreboard.

The Ragin’ Cajuns were led by Bureau’s 13 points off the bench. Randell Daigle contributed 12 points.

ASU received a team-best 12 points from starting guard Donald Boone. Boone also had a team-best eight rebounds.

UL forced 15 Red Wolves turnovers which led to 18 points. ASU outboarded UL 39-26 and used 14 second-chance points to hold the lead for the majority of the contest.