Men;s Basketball: Cajuns rip Warhawks

 

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, February 11, 2013

Except for a second-half stretch of about six-and-a-half minutes, it was a tight one between UL and UL Monroe on Sunday night at the Cajundome.

A tie game, in fact.

But the Ragin’ Cajuns used a 24-0 run over a span of 6:31 for all they separation they would need in a 90-66 Sun Belt Conference win over the Warhawks.

A mid-run press helped push the point for UL, which hadn’t played since losing at Troy more than a week ago.

"It staggered them a little bit, and surprised them," Cajuns coach Bob Marlin said after his club won for the second time in its last three outings and improved to 9-16 overall, 5-9 in conference play.

"And we were attacking the whole time, and sharing the basketball," Marlin added, "and had a really good offensive push there with a couple timely 3s."

Yet the Cajuns — who, coupled with a 105-74 win over North Texas on Jan. 31, have now enjoyed back-to-back home wins of 20 points or more three times in the last five seasons — had no idea at the time where the run was headed.

In fact, neither Marlin nor his players — including Bryant Mbamalu, who came off the bench to score a game-high 24 points and was one of six Cajuns in double figures — had any idea that the count of UL points between ULM scoring had hit 24.

It was obvious things were going well, though.

"We’re not really aware of (the count)," said Mbamalu, who shot 8-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range. "But we can sense that we’re playing good, and that "» they’re kind of stumbling a little bit."

"We know when we’re scoring offensively, and just like a fan we feel the momentum there," Marlin added. "But we as coaches know the defensive success we’re having too. We’re coming up with steals and stops during that stretch."

Mbamalu, who said he’d never previously been a part of such a run at any level, compared the experience to "a heavyweight fight."

"You can feel it when you’re opponent is on the ropes a little bit," he said. "Fortunately enough, we were able to capitalize."

"It’s just momentum, really," forward Elridge Moore added. "And when we feel we have the momentum, we just keep attacking, and it just worked out for us this game."

Up 54-50 after leading 37-31 at halftime, the Cajuns got their run going with a follow-bucket by season scoring-leader Shawn Long, who struggled shooting (5-of-17) but finished with an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double.

Alan-Michael Thompson followed with a 3-pointer, helping him get into double figures at 12 along with Mbamalu, Long, Moore (11 with 4-for-5 field shooting), Elfrid Payton (15 points, including 5-for-5 field shooting and 5-for-5 free-throw shooting) and Steven Wronkoski (10).

"Coach told us at that time that the game was in the balance," Mbamalu said, "and he wanted us to try to turn it up a notch a little bit and pick up our defense."

They picked up on the offensive end, too.

Thompson hit three treys during the run, and Moore scored seven of his 11 during it.

Things ended for UL only after a Thompson 3-pointer that made it 78-50 was answered by a Trey Lindsey basket.

It was really was an impressive half-dozen or so minutes, even against a struggling 3-17 Monroe club that has now lost nine in a row.

Yet the Cajuns truly had little clue just how special it was.

"I just told the guys there was a five- or seven-minute stretch there where we played really well on both sides of the ball," Marlin said of his postgame talk, "and that we’ve got to make that more than five- or six- or seven-minute stretch."

As if 24-0 in 6:31 isn’t enough.

"We’ve got to do that," Marlin said he told his team, "for 10-to-15 minutes."