Men’s Basketball: Cajuns fail to catch up to Georgia State, lose 83-79

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, March 14, 2015

VIDEO: UL falls to Georgia State in SBC semifinals

PHOTO GALLERY: Sun Belt Tournament: UL vs. Georgia State

NEW ORLEANS – UL was down by 11 before it rallied to beat Georgia State in overtime of the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Tournament title game. The Ragin’ Cajuns trailed by 17 in the first half of a home win over the Panthers earlier this season, too.

So Georgia State has seen its share of what UL tried to pull off late in their Sun Belt semifinal-round game Saturday.

"That’s kind of the exact same way they got back in the game (previously)," Georgia State star R.J. Hunter said, "and I could tell by our body language that we were kind of getting complacent."

But with Hunter warning teammates against letting their guard down too much, and UL facing too big deficit anyway, it wasn’t to be for the Cajuns this time.

Hunter scored 32 points to lead No. 1 seed Georgia State past No. 4 seed UL 83-79 at Lakefront Arena here, squashing Cajun hopes for a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance and keeping alive Panther aspirations for what UL denied it last year.

"We beat a good basketball team," said Georgia State coach Ron Hunter, R.J.’s father.

"Really proud of these guys," Hunter added. "But we didn’t come here to beat Lafayette. That’s not what our goal was. Our goal was to come here and get to the NCAA Tournament."

Georgia State’s hopes now hinge on a title game today against No. 2 seed Georgia Southern, which beat UL Monroe 44-43 in Saturday’s other semifinal.

The Panthers led UL by 24 points with just under 16 minutes to go Saturday and by 10 with less than 10 seconds left, and late 3-pointers by UL’s Kasey Shepherd and Hayward Register made the final margin seem closer than it really was much of the game.

Shepherd had 16 points and Devonta Walker 17 to lead the Cajuns, whose seven-game win streak came to a close.

The Cajuns, 20-13 after the loss, allowed 23-9 Georgia State 22 points off 13 first-half turnovers. They finished with 21 turnovers in all, and trailed 44-27 at halftime.

"We dug ourselves a hole in the first half," Cajuns coach Bob Marlin said.

"I don’t think we were aggressive enough. We were stagnant in our (first-half) offense, and we playing a little conservative," Shepherd added. "I think we should have attacked more, and attacked smarter."

Marlin credited Georgia State for aggressive halfcourt defense, which Ron Hunter suggested stemmed from lobbying by Panther players to start off playing that way.

"I think we caught them off-guard by opening the game pressing. … That got us going," Ron Hunter said.

But it wasn’t only what Georgia State was doing that ultimately did UL in. Rather, it also was how the Cajuns responded.

Marlin point guard Jay Wright "was trying too hard at times," and Shepherd attributed UL’s sloppiness to "carelessness."

"We just didn’t take care of the ball," Walker said.

"Not so much them. Just the way we were passing the ball," Shepherd added. "I don’t think we did a good job helping each other with the press, and I think we were a little reckless at the beginning of the game — and it came back to bite."

It was 25-21 after a Register 3-pointer with just more than seven minutes left in the opening half, and UL had a chance to get within two when Kevin Ware — the ex-Louisville guard — stole the ball from Wright.

Hunter hit a resulting layup, Isaiah Dennis followed with another layup and in the blink of an eye Georgia State’s advantage was comfortably in double digits.

"We can’t hand out layups," Marlin said. "It was a miracle we got as close as we did.

"Our guys played hard until the end. I’m proud of their efforts. If we had a little bit more time, then it might could have been five more minutes."

UL got to within nine after a Steven Wronkoski steal and reserve layup made it 72-63 with 2:30 left, but Georgia State used a 6-1 run to push its lead back to 14.

"We found a soft spot in the zone," Walker said. "We just got in the middle, tried to make smart plays."

They were far too few too late, however.

"I like the way we fought at the end," Marlin said. "We finally made some 3-point shots, but just too many turnovers early and too many layups for them."

UL season-scorer leader Shawn Long, who came into the tournament averaging 17.0 points per game, was limited to 10 one day after he had just six in a 53-43 second-round win over No. 8 seed Texas State.

Long also got into early fourth-foul trouble for a second straight game.

Even more than containing him, though, Hunter was happy with how his Panthers defended UL’s long-distance shooting. The Cajuns were 8-of-22 on trey tries, but three of the makes came in the last 27 seconds.

"We came in saying that we wanted to defend the 3-point line and that were going to take that away," the Georgia State coach said. "We were going to try to limit Long, but, if Long had a great night, then so be it."