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Men’s Basketball: Short of a dozenMen’s Basketball: Short of a dozen Men’s Basketball: Short of a dozen Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • March 7, 2011 HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — UL’s recent hot streak and dream of winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament ended prematurely against a familiar foe. Western Kentucky erased an 11-point deficit in the first half and then held off a furious rally to edge the Ragin’ Cajuns, 81-76, on Sunday night in the Sun Belt tournament quarterfinals in Summit Arena. The Sun Belt West Division co-champion Cajuns (14-15) cut their deficit to 75-71 at the 1:08 mark, but Josh Brown missed shots in the lane with 26 and 21 seconds left, respectively.Preseason East Division favorite WKU (16-15) followed with six made free throws to advance to the Sun Belt tournament semifinals for the seventh straight year. The loss snapped UL’s streak of 11 consecutive wins, which was tied for the second-best active mark in the nation and in school history. "Tonight we had a chance to get to 12 (straight wins), and we fell short," UL coach Bob Marlin said. "We didn’t make plays down the stretch. We had one period in the second half where we had a couple turnovers and a couple of shots rolled off, and they (WKU) made some timely plays."Steffphon Pettigrew, Sergio Kerusch and Juan Pattillo made most of them. The senior trio combined for 80 percent of WKU’s scoring (65-of-81). Pettigrew poured in a game-high 26 points, Kerusch scored 25 and Pattillo chipped in 14 points and 10 rebounds to avenge a 67-64 loss to the Cajuns on Feb. 19.WKU, which shot 50.9 percent from the floor, advanced to play defending conference tournament champion North Texas (21-10) at 6 p.m. today in the league tourney semifinals. The Mean Green upset Sun Belt East Division champ Florida Atlantic on Sunday 78-64. "At one point Juan pulled us all together and said ‘We are not going to lose this game,’" Pettigrew said. "From then on we started getting stops. Our defensive pressure picked up, and we started making plays on both ends."UL’s fab freshman J.J. Thomas battled foul trouble all night. Thomas, who had 25 points against WKU in the regular season, finished with two points on 1-of-3 shooting before fouling out with seven minutes left. Brown paced four Cajuns in double figures with 19 points and 14 rebounds against a Hilltopper team that had won two of the past three Sun Belt tournaments. Seniors La’Ryan Gary (17 points), Travis Bureau (16 points) and Randell Daigle (12 points) also hit double digits. Up by 11 points midway through the first half, the Cajuns hit only one shot over a seven-minute period yet still went into the half leading 39-36. "At the beginning of the game we were executing plays, playing good defense and rebounding," Brown said. "When we stopped doing that the game changed."Everything changed in the second half. WKU opened the second half with an 8-0 run to take its first lead of the game with 17:19 to go. Then the Cajuns responded with nine straight points over the next two minutes to pull ahead 48-44.Thomas went to the bench after picking up his fourth foul with 13:56 remaining, and the Cajuns trailed 56-55 when he re-entered the game six minutes later. Another 48 seconds ticked off the clock until Thomas fouled out with his team trailing by five. The second-team all-conference selection averaged a team-high 11.7 points per game this season going into the matchup."I felt a little change there," Brown said. "He works real hard, and I know he would have helped us if he had been out there more." WKU took advantage of UL’s misfortune, scoring 14 straight points to take an 11-point lead with 4:42 left. The Cajuns later had a chance to make it a one-possession game, but Brown’s two shots rolled out in the final minute, and the Hilltoppers survived and advanced in the postseason.Gary said that he believed the Cajuns would have won if one of Brown’s shots in the final minute had gone in. Instead, UL’s postseason drought continued. The Cajuns haven’t won in the postseason since 2006. "The great defensive plays that we had were key to the game," said WKU coach Ken McDonald, whose club has gone 11-4 since a 5-11 start. "It was a great rematch and a great basketball game."The Cajuns could earn a bid to the College Basketball Invitational, which doesn’t require teams to have a winning record, but Marlin and his players weren’t thinking about that afterward.They were focused on missing a golden opportunity to stay alive in the Sun Belt tournament. "This game was kind of like our season," Gary said. "We just kept on fighting but came up short." Athletic Network Footnote: Click here for the photo gallery of the Jan. 21-22, 2011 Basketball Reunion Click here for the January 18, 2003 Basketball Reunion Click here for the Nov. 1-2, 2001 Shipley Basketball Reunion
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