Saturday’s game between Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La., was tied at 32-32 at halftime.
Then it was all Ragin’ Cajuns in the final 20 minutes.
Louisiana-Lafayette outscored ASU 53-35 in the second half on its way to a 85-67 victory over the Red Wolves.
The Red Wolves (14-9, 7-5 Sun Belt Conference) saw its four-game winning streak end Saturday. The victory gave Louisiana-Lafayette sole possession of third place in the Sun Belt.
“They [Louisiana-Lafayette] beat us physically every which way possible,” ASU Coach John Brady said. “They were ready for us and we didn’t match their physicality. Tonight, Lafayette was better than us and deserved to beat us on how they played, which was really well.”
The Ragin’ Cajuns shot59.4 percent (19 of 32) in the second half and finished 52.5 percent (31 of 59) overall. Elfrid Payton led Louisiana-Lafayette with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
Bryant Mbamalu had 19 points. He scored seven points, on two layups and a three-pointer, in a 15-0 run that gave Louisiana-Lafayette a 55-41 lead with 13:55 remaining. ASU didn’t score over a span of four minutes and didn’t get any closer than eight points the rest of the game.
Shawn Long scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. JJ Davenport chipped in with 13 points.
The Ragin’ Cajuns outrebounded the Red Wolves 40-23 and outscored them 44-24 in the paint.
ASU led 15-4 with 12:04 left in the first half. But Louisiana-Lafayette tied the game at 22-22 with less than five minutes remaining in the half.
The Red Wolves led 30-24 with 2:46 left in the first half. However, the Ragin’ Cajuns would outscore the RedWolves 8-2 in the final 2:46 to tie the game at 32-32 at halftime.
Kendrick Washington and Melvin Johnson III each scored 19 points to lead ASU. Ed Townsel had 13 points while Kirk Van Slyke added eight.
ASU shot 41.2 percent (21 of 51) from the field, made 6 of 19 (31.6) from three-point range and 19 of 28 (67.9) from the free-throw line.
SOUTHLAND MEN HOUSTON BAPTIST 99, CENTRAL ARKANSAS 83
Central Arkansas (6-18, 3-10 Southland Conference) allowed a season-high 58 points in the second half as Houston Baptist (5-21, 2-12) won its second conference game of the season at Sharp Gymnasium in Houston.
The Bears trailed 41-38 at halftime and were outscored 58-45 in the second half. They were outrebounded 51-38, outscored in the paint 44-30 and turned the ball over 14 times. UCA won the first meeting between the two teams 86-69 on Jan. 4 in Conway.
The Huskies shot 28 of 39 at the freethrow line in the second half and 32 of 46 overall.
“I don’t know if we lost our energy in warmups or what,” UCA interimcoach Clarence Finley said, “but we just couldn’t get them going. We seemed like we were a step slow all night. I tried everything I could possibly do, every lineup I could possibly go to. We just couldn’t get it done. It was just a long night.”
LaQuentin Miles led UCA with 27 points, two short of his career high. Lenell Brown had a career-high 20 points. DuShaun Rice finished with 10 points.
Robert Lewis scored 26 points for Houston Baptist.
SWAC MEN ARK.-PINE BLUFF 64, SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY 58
Marcel Mosley scored a game-high 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting as Arkansas-Pine Bluff (9-15, 7-5 Southwestern Athletic Conference) won its fifth consecutive game, beating Southern University of Baton Rouge (14-11, 10-2) at the F.G. Clark Activity Center in Baton Rouge.
The Golden Lions shot 52.4 percent (11 of 21) in the second half.
Tevin Hammond had 15 points and four assists for UAPB, which led 31-28 at halftime.
Malcolm Miller led the Jaguars with 11 points. Trelun Banks and Yondarius Johnson each had 10 points.
UAPB held Southern to 36 percent (18 of 50) shooting, including 29.6 percent (8 of 27) in the second half.
Sports, Pages 26 on 02/16/2014