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Men’s Basketball: Payton Named LSWA State Basketball Player Of The Week
PAYTON NAMED LSWA STATE BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
BATON ROUGE � After helping the Louisiana Ragin� Cajuns to a split in a pair of games last week, junior Elfrid Payton was selected on Monday as the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) College Basketball Player of the Week in a release by the organization.
Payton, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, averaged a double-double for the Ragin� Cajuns with 19.0 points and 10.5 rebounds. He added 4.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks during the week in helping the Ragin� Cajuns clinch the No. 3 seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and the school�s first 20-win season since 2002-03.
The Gretna, La., native posted his seventh double-double of the season with 31 points and a career-high 13 rebounds in a 75-72 loss at WKU on Thursday.
Payton came back in the regular-season finale on Saturday at Arkansas State, scoring 17 points with eight rebounds, six assists and three steals in a 77-76 victory. He scored the Cajuns� final eight points of the game in the final 1:51, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 11.9 seconds remaining to help preserve the win.
He attempted nine free throws against the Red Wolves to increase his season total to 278, breaking the single-season record (273) that was set by Dean Church in the 1964-65 season. Payton also increased his career total of free throw attempts to 620, moving past Marvin Winkler (614, 1967-70) for fifth-place in school history, while his 383 free throws made moved him into eighth-place in school history, passing former Cajun Kevin Brooks (381, 1987-91).
The weekly award was the third of the season for Payton, who was earned LSWA honors on Dec. 16 and Feb. 17. Payton is one of three Ragin� Cajuns to earn the LSWA weekly award in the 2013-14 season joining teammates Shawn Long (Dec. 3 and Feb. 10) and Bryant Mbamalu (March 3).
The Ragin� Cajuns will return to action on Friday at 8:30 p.m. when it faces the winner of Thursday�s contest between No. 6-seeded UT Arlington and No. 7-seeded ULM. The game will be televised on the Sun Belt Network.
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Matt Sullivan
Assistant Sports Information Director
Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Cox Communications Athletic Center
201 Reinhardt Drive
Lafayette, LA 70506-4297
Office – (337) 482-6330
Mobile – (985) 981-0009
Twitter – @MattSulli123
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