Women’s Basketball: Veal’s 26 Points Pushes Cajuns Past Northwestern State

 

Cajuns (22-10) move on to second round of WBI Tournament this Saturday

 

Box Score (PDF)

 

 LAFAYETTE — Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball senior guard Keke Veal dropped a game-high 26 points against Northwestern State on Wednesday in a 69-54 win over the Lady Demons in the opening round of the WBI Tournament at the Cajundome.

"I was very pleased with our effort and our energy, especially in the fourth quarter," Ragin’ Cajuns head coach Garry Brodhead said. "We were able to create a lot of turnovers and make layups out of those turnovers. We had a lot of help on the defensive side, it was just a complete team effort."

Veal came up with a team-high five steals, bumping her into sole possession of second place on the Cajuns’ all-time list with 263, passing Lisa Merritt. Sophomore forward Simone Fields added 18 points to go with three rebounds and a steal. Senior guard Kia Wilridge chipped in 12 points, four rebounds, two assists and four steals.

The Cajuns (22-10) led by as many as 26 points with 1:31 remaining in the third quarter. Their largest deficit was three points at the 8:53 mark of the opening quarter.

With the game tied at 3-3 in the early stages, the Cajuns scored 15 unanswered points to take an 18-3 lead with 4:24 to go in the first. Thirteen of those 15 points belonged to Veal (7) and Wilridge (6).

The Cajuns ended the first quarter on a 10-5 run to take a 28-8 lead with them into the second quarter.

The Cajuns outscored Northwestern State, 14-0 in the paint and gained 17 points off turnovers in the first quarter.

The lead reached as many as 23 points (36-13) with 6:14 left in the second quarter. Northwestern State cut the lead to 38-24 by halftime.

Veal recorded 15 of her 27 points in the first half. Wilridge had eight points and four steals in the first half.

In the third quarter, the Cajuns continued to add to their lead. Fields scored a team-high 10 points in the quarter, followed by Veal’s 9 points. By the end of the quarter, the Cajuns had outscored the Lady Demons by 12 points (25-13) and led 63-37 through 30 minutes of basketball.

The Cajuns were outscored 17-6 in the fourth quarter, but came out victorious, 69-54.

Louisiana recorded 14 steals, tying a season-high (Dec. 19 at Louisiana Tech). They added 14 assists which also tied a season high. The Cajuns made 15-of-18 (83.3%) of their free throw attempts.

The Cajuns will play the winner of the McNeese State/Stetson first round game this Saturday, March 19 at E.K. Long Gymnasium. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.