Men’s Basketball: UL Pulls Out Overtime Win over ASU, Keep Pace in SBC West

Box Score

Elfrid Payton’s three-point play with 2:20 remaining in overtime gave the Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team the lead and a pair of defensive stops shored up a 68-65 victory over Arkansas State Saturday evening at the Cajundome.
 
Louisiana (15-12, 9-4 Sun Belt) was forced to play overtime for the third straight home game after Marcus Hooten hit a trey with seven seconds left in regulation to pull Arkansas State (10-17, 4-8 Sun Belt) into a 58-all tie.
 
The Red Wolves went inside to Malcoln Kirkland for the first points of the extra frame and broke a 60-all tie with a pair of Hooten freebies at 2:34.
 
Following a Kirkland free throw miss at 2:34, Payton cut his way through the lane for a layup and was fouled by Ed Townsel. The layup evened the score at 63-all, then Payton drained the freebie to give UL a 64-63 lead.
 
Bryant Mbamalu rebounded a missed three-pointer by Townsel, then saved a loose ball from going out-of-bounds on the Cajuns return to the other side of the court. Raymone Andrews received Mbamalu’s recovery and Darshawn McClellan drew a foul and made both free throw shots to up the advantage to 66-63.
 
UL then drew a charge from Hooten on the ensuing possession and ran the clock below 20 seconds. ASU rebounded a miss by Payton, but a three-point attempt by Townsel was off the mark and the Red Wolves had to settle for a Brandon Peterson putback and still trailed 66-65 with 1.3 seconds showing
 
Andrews, celebrating his 22^nd birthday, made both free throws with 0.7 seconds on the clock to provide the final margin.
 
UL defeated ASU for the fourth straight meeting at the Cajundome and improved to 17-6 vs. the Red Wolves in the facility. The Cajuns avenged a 79-74 loss to ASU back on Jan 21 in Jonesboro and rebounded from a tough overtime loss to UALR on Thursday.
 
UALR lost 68-60 to Middle Tennessee allowing the Cajuns to move back within a half game of the Trojans for the Sun Belt West division lead as the season enters the final two weeks.
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns are set to play their final road contests of the 2011-12 regular season next week traveling to face Denver on Thursday and North Texas on Saturday.
 
Mbamalu led the Cajuns with 16 points. Kirkland tied him for game-high honors as he led ASU with 16 points.
 
Louisiana scored the game’s first six points and moved the lead into double figures at 13:02 when an Mbamalu trey made it 18-8.
 
The Cajuns were ahead 20-8 at the 11-minute media timeout paced by a 6-of-9 start from the floor. ASU was shooting 3-of-14 at the time.
 
ASU cut the Cajuns lead to 21-16 inside of nine minutes turning consecutive UL turnovers into layups from Trey Finn and Hooten at 8:44 and 8:02, respectively.
 
An Andrews triple at 6:50 upped the Louisiana lead to 27-18, but the squad would go cold for the next five minutes missing six consecutive shots and ASU capitalized with a 14-0 run to grab its first lead of the night.
 
Payton ended the ASU run with a layup at 1:26. Kirkland fed Darion Griswold on the ensuing possession for a layup of his own that increased the Red Wolves’ lead to 34-29, the margin it was at halftime.
 
ASU was able to dig its way out of the early double-figure hole by shooting 11-of-19 in the final 11:47 of the opening stanza.
 
The Cajuns defense shutout ASU for the first 4:20 of the second stanza and came within a point, 34-33, following an Mbamalu basket at 16:27.
 
ASU picked up three free throws over two trips to the line in the 15-minute mark to stretch the lead to 37-33. A Finn steal from Mbamalu led to a layup and it was 39-33.
 
Kadeem Coleby had his hand in starting a Cajuns rally that eventually put the hosts in the lead. He slammed home the ball at 10:40 and picked up a steal on the ensuing possession which led to Payton rebounding his own miss at 9:57 to trim the ASU lead to 41-39.
 
After a Hooten turnover, Mbamalu took advantage of a second-chance opportunity by burying a triple as he was falling to the floor at 9:14 and UL led 42-41. The Red Wolves drew even with a Townsel freebie at 8:41 only to have Coleby muscle his way inside again for a dunk with 8:34 left to play that gave UL a 44-42 lead.
 
An Andrews triple at 7:50 and Coleby dunk at 7:01 stretched the Cajuns lead to 49-43. The Red Wolves went to Kirkland for back-to-back baskets to pull within two points and drew even at 49-all when Peterson dunked off a bounce pass.

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