Men’s Basketball: Cajuns lose Marquetti for rest of season

Daily Advertiser, Jan. 1, 2019

The UL Ragin’ Cajuns will be forced to play the rest of the season without senior captain Malik Marquetti due to an injury. (Photo: James Mays/Special to the Advertiser)

The UL Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team began the new year with really bad news.

On Monday evening, coach Bob Marlin officially confirmed that senior transfer Malik Marquetti will be forced to miss the rest of the 2018-19 season with an injury.

The injury was sustained during the Cajuns’ 73-72 road win over Southeastern in Hammond on Saturday.

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Marquetti was the leading scorer in the game with 19 points, along with one rebound, one assist and three turnovers, in 26 minutes.

“It’s disappointing that Malik will miss the rest of the season due to injury,” Marlin said in a statement. “Since the Kansas game, Malik was making great strides offensively and has been our best defensive player.

“As one of our team captains, Malik was having an All-Conference season and our staff felt like he was taking on the role of leadership and consistency that (former UL guard) Frank Bartley displayed for us.”

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For the season, Marquetti was averaging the most minutes on the team at 31.7 minutes a game. The USC transfer was also the second-leading scorer at 15.1 points a game, as well as 4.5 rebounds a contest.

He was the squad’s top 3-point shooter at 45.2 percent beyond the arc, as well as the top free throw shooter at 86.7 percent.

For the season, Marquetti was shooting 46.4 percent overall from the field.

Marquetti reached double figures in scoring in nine of UL’s 13 games this season.

The Cajuns (9-4) will begin life without Marquetti on Thursday in the Sun Belt Conference opener against Arkansas State at the Cajundome.