It was Senior Night, so reserves Scottie Farrington and David Perez joined regulars Darshawn McClellan and Josh Brown in UL’s opening lineup.

Click here for photo gallery of senior night.  

Over 60 photos and 41-49 are of the Dean Church Jersey Retirement.

Dean Church was honored at halftime, his old jersey number from the 1960s — 12 — now retired in the rafters of the Cajundome alongside those of fellow former program greats Bo Lamar, Marvin Winkler and Andrew Toney.

The Ragin’ Cajuns were facing a 2-26 team, in-state rival UL Monroe, that hadn’t won in Lafayette since 1957.

Everything was in place for things to go right for coach Bob Marlin’s club in its final regular-season game before its head to Hot Springs, Ark., for the upcoming Sun Belt Conference tournament.

Instead, the Cajuns wound up on the wrong side of a 78-60 decision that left Marlin puzzled and his players perplexed.

"Mentally we weren’t there tonight," said Marlin, who addressed his club at length afterward. "I don’t have an explanation for it."

Whether it had anything to do with UL overlooking Monroe, or the Cajuns looking ahead to a conference tourney that for them begins next Sunday, or a simple case of not knowing where to look first for an answer as to where it all went wrong, no one seemed to know.

"There really is no reasoning that," said McClellan, who wound up with a team-high 11 points on a night his brother — UL big man Steven McClellan — scored 14.

"We just came out lackadaisical, and hats off to Monroe — they played a heck of a game, and they executed very well. "» I think it all just boils down to we didn’t come ready to play."

With true freshman Elfrid Payton opening at the point in place of usual junior starter Raymone Andrews — "He (Payton) practiced better this week," Marlin said — UL (16-14) did actually lead 28-23 at the half.

But with the game tied at 44 after an inside bucket by Steven McClellan with 12 minutes and 17 seconds remaining, Warhawks guard Hugh Mingo knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to give UL Monroe a lead it never did relinquish.

Around the same time, during a four-minute stretch in which UL went from up 43-42 to down eight at 55-47, the Cajuns missed 8-of-11 free throws.

UL, which went into the game shooting just 64.1 percent from the line, wound up 14-of-28 on freebies Saturday.

"We’re not gonna win a lot of games," Marlin said, "when we make one of two free throws every time."

The two treys by Mingo didn’t help matters for UL, either. He wound up with 17 points, topped by 20 from teammate Charles Winborne and another 19 by Fred Brown.

"He (Wingo) had it all going," Marlin said. "The second half we backed off him because he’s a driver — and he hits a couple 3s."

Wingo wound up 3-of-3 from 3-point range, all coming during a half in which UL Monroe shot 72 percent (18-of-25) from the field.

"They came out (after halftime) with more interest than us," said Brown, who like Perez scored 10. "The second half we came out with no energy, and that killed us."

"You can’t beat anybody like that," Marlin added. "Our defense was nonexistent."

Missing for much of the night, too, was J.J. Thomas, UL’s top scorer last season and its usual backup power forward behind McClellan this season.

According to Marlin, the sophomore was limited to just four minutes because of a blunder trying to check into the game.

"He didn’t have a jersey," the Cajuns coach said, "so I didn’t feel like he could help us if he didn’t have his uniform."

That was the last thing UL needed on what Marlin called "a disappointing Senior Day for a group of seniors that will have to remember this one for a long time."

Marlin might have suggested as much during a lengthy postgame talk with his team.

"They were quiet," he said. "They sat and listened. They knew that we got outplayed, and the team that deserved to win won. We didn’t defend the second half. You can’t beat anybody defending like that. It’s disappointing."