Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns faced a stiff test from FIU on Thursday night, but the Cajuns took a 72-68 decision thanks to clutch free throw shooting.

Louisiana (9-14, 6-5) has now won six straight games, including back-to-back road contests. 

The Cajuns were 9-of-18 from the line in the game’s first 37 minutes, but hit their last 12 from the charity stripe, including 10 straight over the final 85 seconds of the game.

FIU (9-15, 4-8) didn’t make it easy, scoring quickly after every Cajuns trip to the line to keep the pressure on. 

In fact, the game was tied at 68-68 with 11.3 seconds remaining, but Randell Daigle hit two from the line with 6.7 seconds left and La’Ryan Gary buried two more with one second remaining to set the final margin.

Travis Bureau led the Cajuns with 18 points.  He made the Cajuns final field goal of the game at the 2:14 mark.  Josh Brown had 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds.  Gary finished with 12 points and J.J. Thomas had 10 points.  Raymone Andrews chipped in eight points, six assists, four rebounds, three steals and zero turnovers.  Andrews made four straight free throws in the final minute.

The Cajuns held FIU to 36.4 percent shooting over the first 20 minutes, but still trailed at the half.  The difference was the Golden Panthers 12-of-18 from the free throw line, while the Cajuns were 3-of-8.

UL started the second stanza with a 10-4 run to capture a five-point advantage. 

Lay-ups by Andrews and Bureau pushed the Cajuns lead up to nine points, 45-36, with 12:22 left in the game.

A resilient FIU cut the Cajuns edge down to three points, 52-49, with less than eight minutes to play.  The Cajuns were in foul trouble at that point, as Thomas, Daigle and Bryant Mbamalu all had four fouls and Bureau, Gary and Brown each had three fouls.

Gary picked-up his fourth personal as Cameron Wright converted a three-point play for FIU, trimming the Cajuns lead to 57-55 with 4:15 showing on the clock.

One free throw by Bureau and two by Andrews brought the Cajuns’ lead back to five, 60-55, with 3:33 remaining.

Two more from the stripe by Bureau kept UL up five with 1:25 showing, but FIU countered with baskets on two straight possessions to make it a one-point game with 35.1 seconds showing on the clock.  A three-point play by Tremayne Russell tied the game with 11.3 seconds remaining.

FIU’s DeJuan Wright led all players with 23 points and 11 rebounds.

The game was tightly contested early in the first half.  The scored was tied three times until a 10-1 run by UL pushed the Cajuns lead to 18-9 at the 10:50 mark.  Baskets from Gary and Mbamalu, two free throws by Thomas, and buckets inside by Brown and Javan Mitchell accounted for the scoring.

FIU responded with an 11-2 run to tie the game with 7:13 to play in the first half.

A jumper by Thomas and a triple by Daigle quickly built a five-point edge for the Cajuns, but FIU outscored UL 7-1 over the final four minutes of the opening half to take a 29-28 lead at the half.