Women’s Basketball: Three Cajuns Net Double-Figures in Win Over Georgia State

Seniors Keke Veal (20), Adrienne Prejean (13) and Brooklyn Arceneaux (12) lead Cajuns to 19th win this season

LAFAYETTE — Entering the evening with a one-game lead for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament’s third seed, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball team earned their 10^th home win with a 65-60 victory over Georgia State at the Cajundome on Thursday night.

The win improved the Cajuns’ record to 19-9 and 12-7 in Sun Belt Conference play. Louisiana moved one win closer to securing the third seed in the conference tournament next week in New Orleans. The Cajuns reached the 10-win mark at home in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 campaigns.

The Ragin’ Cajuns received huge lifts offensively from three of their seniors. Guard Keke Veal led the way for the Cajuns on offense, netting a game-high 20 points along with a three steals. Forward Adrienne Prejean set a new career high in points with 13 and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Forward Brooklyn Arceneaux scored 12 points to go with five rebounds, three assists and a steal.

"We received a great effort from our team tonight, especially our seniors," Ragin’ Cajuns head coach Garry Brodhead said. "The second half was big for us by limiting ourselves to just four turnovers."

The Cajuns produced 28 points off 25 turnovers by the Georgia State Panthers and added 15 points on second-chance opportunities.

In the opening quarter, the Cajuns led for the majority of the way. They took an early four-point lead at 8-4, with six of those points coming from senior guard Kia Wilridge.

The Panthers tied the game at 12-12 at the 3:29 mark of the quarter after a jumper by Ashlee Cole.

Junior Taylor Washington‘s three-pointer on the next possession gave the Cajuns the lead back at 15-12, but Cole came back and matched Washington’s trey to knot the game with 2:29 to go in the first.

Georgia State took a 19-17 lead into the second quarter thanks to a layup with 23 seconds left on the clock.

The Cajuns fell behind by as many as six points with 8:03 to go in the second quarter, but Prejean pulled the Cajuns back to even with three consecutive layups, tying the game at 23-23 with 5:24 to play.

After the Cajuns built a 28-23 lead with nearly 2 ½ minutes to go, Georgia State ended the first half on a 7-1 run to take a 30-29 lead into halftime.

The Cajuns received all 12 of their second quarter points from their bench (Prejean -7, Jodi Quinn – 5).

Coming out of halftime, Georgia State used the first 3:20 of the third quarter to extend their lead to 35-31.

Washington, Veal and Wilridge teamed up to push the Cajuns back ahead, 40-39 with 4:32 left in the third. Five of the nine points came from Veal via a layup and a three-pointer.

The two teams exchanged buckets and leads over the next two possessions before Louisiana took a three-point lead on a layup by Prejean.

Following a layup by Georgia State with 2:25 to go in the third, Prejean (layup) and Veal (three-pointer) pulled the Cajuns ahead by six points at 49-43.

In the final quarter, Georgia State made it a two-point game following a pair of free throws, but Veal splashed a three-pointer with 8:48 to go to make it 52-47.

The Panthers kept the game close at 54-52, but a three-point play by Veal made it a two-posssession game at 57-52 with 5:08 remaining.

After cutting into the Cajuns lead and closing to within as little as a single point with 2:24 left (59-58), Veal hit a jump shot to bump the lead back to three points with 2:02 to go.

With 1:27 remaining, Arceneaux drew a foul and deposited both free throws to keep the Cajuns ahead by five at 63-58.

Georgia State cut the lead back to three on the next possession, but Veal came back to preserve the win with a pair of free throws to give the Cajuns the 65-60 victory.

Louisiana shot 40.7% (24-of-59) from the floor and hit four three-pointers. They held a slight edge in rebounds over Georgia State at 32-30, and came up with 13 steals, the most since Jan. 2 at Appalachian State (recorded 13 steals in that game as well).

Wilridge added eight points to go with team-highs in assists (6) and steals (6). Her eight points moved her into a sixth-place tie with Alyson Habetz with 1,192.

The Cajuns close out their regular season schedule this Saturday, March 5 for Senior Day at the Cajundome vs. Georgia Southern. Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. Seniors Brooklyn Arceneaux, Adrienne Prejean, Keke Veal, Kia Wilridge and student manager Jacob Benoit will be honored at halftime of the men’s basketball game.