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Men’s Basketball: Parting ShotJoshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • January 22, 2010 UL kept two streaks alive against its fiercest Sun Belt Conference rival behind the one-two punch of Chris Gradnigo and Tyren Johnson. That tandem combined for 44 points as the Ragin’ Cajuns pulled away in the second half for a 70-53 win over the University of New Orleans on Thursday before an announced crowd of 2,698 in the Cajundome. Gradnigo scored a game-high 23 points, while Johnson added 21 points and nine rebounds as UL won its 13th consecutive game in the series in the Cajundome. The duo accounted for all of the points during a 20-0 run in the second half that turned a seven-point deficit into a lead that the Cajuns never relinquished the rest of the night. "There’s no secret formula, no Michael Jordan juice or anything," Gradnigo said when asked why he and Johnson work so well together. "It’s just hard work. We put in a lot of extra time together on the court." That extra work paid off when the Cajuns (7-11, 4-3 Sun Belt) needed it the most while improving to 4-0 at home this season in league play. Gradnigo made 10-of-17 shots from the floor, while Johnson went 9-of-15 shooting with four assists and two steals in another strong all-around effort. Playing without leading scorer Billy Humphrey due to a knee injury, UNO (7-12, 2-6) led by as many as seven points with 7:22 left in the first half but stumbled after halftime. It was the 13th straight road loss in conference play for the Privateers in the final regular-season meeting between the two programs as Sun Belt foes. On Wednesday, UNO announced that it would withdrawal from the league effective July 1 and eventually drop to NCAA Division III. Carl Blair led UNO with 12 points, while Charles Carmouche and Ejike Hart had 10 apiece. "They are the most talented team in the league," UNO coach Joe Pasternack said of the Cajuns. "You just don’t know which one is going to show up. But they have an opportunity to win the league with that talent level." UNO was ready to play the role of spoiler early on the road. Riding a two-game winning streak, the Privateers took a 30-27 halftime lead as their 52.2 percent shooting offset 13 turnovers. UL was unable to get into an offensive flow while trying some newly-installed plays in the first half.
"The first half was our tempo," Pasternack said. "We did a good job of getting into our tempo." Sloppy play marked the first three minutes of the second half before UL coach Robert Lee called a timeout to calm down his players and get them refocused. "We just talked about that we needed to be more aggressive and assertive," Lee said. "We just simplified what we wanted to do." The new approach worked as the Cajuns went on a 20-0 run to go up 49-36 with 10:45 to go. Johnson scored 13 points over that seven-minute stretch, and Gradnigo added seven as UL appeared to be in control. UNO committed six of its 22 turnovers during that game-changing run. "I just started looking for my shot a little bit more," said Johnson, who left for a few minutes in the second half after banging his head on the court. "I was settling for too many jump shots. I didn’t think I was playing hard and told myself it was time to turn it up." UNO responded to that run, scoring seven straight points to cut its deficit to five points at 58-53 with 3:55 left. Lamar Roberson answered on the other end with a layup as the Cajuns scored the game’s final 12 points to hold on for the win. Playing mostly man-to-man defense after halftime, UL held the Privateers without a field goal for the last 4:38 and to 27.8 percent shooting in the second half. The Cajuns countered by making 52.9 percent of their shots after halftime. "Our turnovers were definitely our downfall," Pasternack said. "Our (three) starting perimeter (players) had 14 turnovers. That’s really our Achilles’ heel because they (the Cajuns) got them into transition and helped it get out of hand." Roberson finished with eight points off the bench in his first action since missing two games with a leg injury. "In the second half we did a much better job of getting the shots that we wanted," said Lee, whose Cajuns play host to Troy on Saturday. "Tyren did a good job in the second half (offensively), and Chris was pretty consistent all game long. "Defensively our guys really took the fight to New Orleans."
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