Men’s Basketball: Mbamalu, Cajuns down UALR to move into first-place tie 12/30/12

UL’s Alan-Michael Thompson passes while Arkansas-Little Rock’s Taggart Lockhart defends on Satuday at the Cajundome / Allyce Andrew, The Advertiser

Nick Fontenot, Special to the Advertiser, December 30, 2012

At times, it seemed like the the UL Ragin’ Cajuns were going to be discussing the officials more than their own play after Saturday’s Sun Belt Conference showdown with the UALR Trojans.

But the Cajuns made sure to take the officials out of play.

Bryant Mbamalu had what UL coach Bob Marlin called an “efficient” 26 points while committing zero turnovers. As a team, the Cajuns had only nine turnovers and were able to turned that into a much-needed 79-70 win over UALR at the Cajundome.

The win left UL 2-2 in league play, which is good enough for a three-way tie in the Sun Belt West race.

“It’s a good win for our basketball team,” Marlin said. “We led for the majority of the game after getting off to a great start. Their subs came in and showed some toughness, but we shot the ball well, Mbamalu was aggressive and he stepped up. It was a total team effort.”

UALR came into the game against the Cajuns allowing just 40 percent shooting from the field. UL shot 49.1 percent Saturday led by a 9-of-14 effort from Mbamalu. "I didn’t do anything special," Mbamalu said about his season-high point total. "I got some layups early and my teammates got me the ball and I made the shots." UL used a quick 8-0 run out of the gates to take an early command of the game. At the 16:41 mark of the first half, UA LR coach Steve Shields was hit with a technical; Mbamalu made one of two free throws to give the Cajuns a 9-1 lead. UALR got back into the game, however, thanks to a 20-4 free-throw attempts margin in the first half. The Trojans made 18 of their 20 free throw attempts in the half and took a 37-34 lead into halftime.

"That seems to happen quite often to us," Marlin said. "It was pretty much the same way at Arkansas State. We were fouling some (against UALR), but there were some calls that I didn’t see. Our defense was pretty good, but the free throws definitely allowed them to stay in the game." The Cajuns began the second half the same way as the first: quick. UL used a 9-2 run to begin the second and regained the lead. The Cajuns got plenty of output from the bench, including 13 points from Alan-Michael Thompson and eight from Josh Soto. Thompson and Soto combined for five of the Cajuns’ seven 3-pointers.

"We had some guys in foul trouble and the bench came up big," Marlin said. "I was glad Alan-Michael Thompson could hit some 3s in the first half. Josh came in and hit some shots. Even the guys that didn’t score, like Aaron LeBlanc and Cornell Barnett, came in and played good defense. We certainly needed them tonight." The Cajuns had a season-low nine turnovers against the Trojans; something Marlin said was a team goal against UALR. The Cajuns won the turnover margin 10-9.

"I would have liked to force a little more," Marlin said. "That is how we built our lead with forcing turnovers. It was one of the few areas where we had an advantage over their team stat wise. It was important that we had a low total." Despite the huge discrepancy in first-half free throw attempts, the totals got closer at the end as UALR began fouling to preserve the clock. UL closed the game knocking down its last 11 free throws. Marlin said he hopes this win will give the Cajuns momentum as they play six of the first 10 conference games on the road.

"For this young team, it is nice to close out a game making some free throws," Marlin said. "Starting with so many road games, it makes getting these wins at home even more important. It will swing back our way obviously, and hopefully when we are playing our best basketball."