Men’s Basketball: Big crowd spurred Cajuns’ victory

Men’s Basketball: Big crowd spurred Cajuns’ victory

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • February 21, 2011

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UL fans cheer after the Ragin’ Cajuns’ 67-64 victory Saturday over Western Kentucky. (Denny Culbert/dculbert@theadvertiser.com)

Even when UL’s winning streak appeared to be in jeopardy, the Ragin’ Cajuns somehow found a way to dig deep and beat Western Kentucky on Saturday night.

Listen to UL freshman forward J.J. Thomas for a second, and you’ll understand why losing wasn’t an option. The Cajuns extended their winning streak to nine straight games — tied for the nation’s second-best active run — with a 67-64 win before a raucous crowd of 7,071 in the Cajundome.

"We’re on a win streak, and we don’t want the win streak to end," said Thomas, who had a game-high 25 points on Saturday. "That’s why we fight so hard. That’s really keeping us going."

The Cajuns (12-14, 9-5 Sun Belt) now have two games left in the regular season and still have a chance to control their own destiny. They were tied for second in the Sun Belt’s West Division with Arkansas State (15-14, 9-5) after Saturday, but Denver (13-14, 9-5) blew a 14-point halftime lead in a 48-47 loss Sunday to South Alabama.

Now the Cajuns, Denver and Arkansas State are tied for first in the West with the Sun Belt tournament on the horizon from March 5-8 in Hot Springs, Ark.

UL plays host to Denver at 7:15 p.m. Thursday in the Cajundome on Senior Night before closing the regular season on Saturday night against UL Monroe on the road. If they win both of those games, they will guarantee themselves a first-round bye in the conference tournament.

First-year UL coach Bob Marlin is still reminding his players to take this season one game at a time.

"We still have little room for error," Marlin said. "We’re going to continue to work and get better. It shows that we can win three games in a row in the (conference) tournament. If we continue to win and get a bye, we won’t have to win four in a row. We feel like this group is playing at a very high level."

Extra points

UL forward Travis Bureau will be honored prior to Thursday’s game along with fellow seniors La’Ryan Gary and Randell Daigle "» Of UL’s nine straight wins, the past eight have been by single digits. Those eight wins have been by an average of 4.9 points "» With Saturday’s win, the Cajuns improved to 24-2 when playing in front of at least 5,000 people in the Cajundome since 2001 "» UL junior guard David Perez had missed 13 consecutive shots dating back to a win over Centenary on Jan. 19 before hitting a 3-pointer in the first half on Saturday.