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Men’s Basketball: Payton Scores Career-High 31 But Cajuns Fall To WKU, 88-77LAFAYETTE, La. — Elfrid Payton scored a career-high 31 points, but the Hilltoppers shot 50-percent from the field and made 10 three-pointers to hand the Ragin Cajunsan 88-77 loss on Saturday night in the Cajundome. The loss drops Louisiana to 11-18 on the year and 7-11 in Sun Belt play while WKU improved to 15-14, 9-9. With one week to go in the regular season, the Cajuns would be the No. 8 seed in the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Championship and would play No. 9 Troy in an opening round game on Friday, March 8. “I am disappointed because we didn’t seem to come out with the usual energy that we have had at home,” Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin said. “They hit a couple of shots early and then we got into a little foul trouble and we got out of sync. We didn’t get the usual production out of our wings and Shawn (Long) was playing with fouls and didn’t play the way he normally does. “We had a great talk in the locker room at halftime because I knew that even though were down by 17, we still had a chance if we got back to doing what had made us successful. We got a couple of chances, but just couldn’t make enough stops,” Marlin added. Shawn Long added 14 points and 13 rebound for his 16th double-double of the year while Bryant Mbamalu added 11 points and Elridge Moore 10. T.J. Price led WKU with 23 points while Jamal Crooks added 21, Brandon Harris 16, all in the second half, and George Fant added 15 point. Payton turned in the best game of his short career, topping his old career high of 26 points set against South Alabama on Jan. 10. Payton scored 15 points in the first half and 16 in the second half, going nine-for-13 from the field and 13-for-19 from the line. The 19 free throws attempted were the most by a Cajuns player in a Sun Belt game. It was his eighth game of 20 or more points this year and the most points by a Cajun since David Dees had 26 points vs. Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 24, 2007. The scoring outburst raised his season scoring average to 16.0 points a game, moving him past Shawn Long (15.6) for the team scoring lead. "Elfrid really played his heart out tonight," Marlin said. "He was already tired from playing almost 40 minutes on Thursday night and then he went all out tonight. He’s exhausted, but you can see how far he has come in the last two years. He’s the best point guard in the Sun Belt." After the Cajuns had leads of 5-4 (17:09) and 7-6 (16:06), WKU Ran off seven straight points to take the lead for good, 13-7 with 14:46 left. The Hilltoppers extended the lead to 28-15 (9:17) and then ued a 10-0 burst to open up a 43-24 lead with 4:56 left in the half. After trailing 53-36 at the half, Payton scored eight points a part of an 11-2 run to start the second half that pulled the Ragin’ Cajuns to within eight points (55-47, 16:28). Louisiana could come no closer as Brandon Harris converted three straight treys to squash the rally, extending the lead to 67-53 at the 11:55 mark. The Cajuns refused to quit. Down 80-65 with 5:10 left to play, Mbamalu scored five straight points and when Long scored inside off an offensive rebound, the Cajuns trailed 80-72 with 2:29 left. Louisiana could not get the big shot to fall down the stretch. Alan-Michael Thompson connected on a three-pointer that closed the gap to seven (84-77), but just 56 seconds remained in the game, not enough to come back further. WKU had a hot night shooting all around, going 28-for-56 from the field (.500) to become the first team to shoot 50-percent or better against the Ragin’ Cajuns this year. The Hilltoppers were also 10-for-20 from three-point (.500) and 22-for-27 from the line (.815). WKU owned a 38-30 rebounding edge and turned the ball over just nine times. With the home schedule complete, the Cajuns will take to the road to finish off its regular season schedule with games at UALR on Thursday (Feb. 28) at 7:30 p.m. and at ULM on Saturday (March 2) at 4:00 p.m. Louisiana then closes out the season at the annual Sun Belt Conference Championships, which will be held from March 8-11 in Hot Springs, Ark. Brian McCann
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