Shawn Long reaches 2K points in Cajuns' victory

Shawn Long and Bryce Washington combined for 36 points and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns won their fourth straight game in an 88-65 victory against Troy Saturday in a Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball game at the Cajundome.
Jay Hedgeman came off the bench to score 12 points, while Jay Wright added nine as Louisiana (9-8, 5-3 Sun Belt) shot 57 percent (32-for-56) from the floor and scored 50 points in the paint.
Playing before a season-high crowd of 6,064, the Ragin’ Cajuns built a 49-31 first-half lead as they went 20-for-28 from the floor (71.4 percent) with Washington’s 13 points leading the way.
Long, who became the sixth player in Ragin’ Cajuns and Sun Belt Conference history to record 2,000 career points, scored 15 of his game-high 20 in the second half and grabbed 14 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season and 64th of his career. The senior, a Morgan City High alum, finished 7-for-12 from the floor and added three assists, three blocks and a steal in 31 minutes.
Washington, who scored 12 points in the Cajuns’ 92-82 win against South Alabama Thursday, tied a season-high with 16 points against Troy (6-13, 1-7 SBC) as he went 7-for-10 from the floor with two rebounds, a block and a steal.
“We were going right at (Jordan) Varnado and (John) Walton, trying to have some success,” Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin said in a news release. “We knew they (Troy) were going to double Shawn. Bryce was the benefactor of a good game plan, and he took advantage of it.”
Louisiana took control midway through the first half as it used a 25-6 run that turned an 18-16 deficit into a 42-24 lead with 2:54 remaining in the first half. The Ragin’ Cajuns scored 13 straight points, beginning with Wright’s three-point play at the 9:51 mark, before buckets by Hayward Register, Devonta Walker and Tyrone Wooten helped build a 29-18 lead.
The Trojans got as close as 32-24 in the first half on a layup by Walton with 5:17 remaining, but Louisiana pulled away as it scored the next 10 points, capped by a three-point play by Washington.
The Ragin’ Cajuns limited Troy to 12-for-28 from the floor in the opening half while forcing 10 turnovers, which led to 16 points.
“I thought our defense was pretty good,” Marlin said. “It got us the lead at halftime. In the second half, we started quick but got a little bit careless with the basketball, didn’t execute and missed some easy shots.
“Troy is a better team than they showed tonight,” Marlin said Saturday. “We did a good job on (Wesley) Person, (John) Walton fouls out early in the second half, and we knew (Jordan) Varnado was a good player. I like our defensive effort. I thought that was the key to the basketball game.”
The Trojans never got closer than 13 points the rest of the night, the last time on B.J. Miller’s layup with 5:23 remaining in the game, but Long and Washington combined to score the next seven points as Louisiana pushed its lead to 80-60 at the 3:42 mark.
Tiremone Williams drained a 3-pointer — his first of the season and third in his career — from the right corner with 2:32 remaining that gave Louisiana an 84-63 lead, and the Ragin’ Cajuns would take their biggest lead of the night (88-63) when Matt Marlin sank the second of two free throws.
In the game, the third in a season-long five-game home stand, Ragin’ Cajun newcomers making their debuts were Jacob Broussard and Elijah McGuire. Broussard, a Lafayette native, recorded a steal in two minutes, while McGuire, a three-time All-Sun Belt Conference pick for the Louisiana football team, recorded a steal in five minutes.
“He’s going to help us defensively,” Marlin said of McGuire, who was playing in his first basketball game since wrapping up his prep career at Houma’s Vandebilt Catholic High School in 2013. “He’s a great athlete. He’s shooting the ball fine in practice. We went over some things, and he just wants to help us win. He said, ‘coach, hopefully I can defend, get an assist or two, here or there, and maybe score a basket.’ But he just wants to help the team.”
Varnado led Troy with 15 points and six rebounds, while Person was held to 11 points. Walton and Shawn Hopkins added 10 points each for the Trojans, who held a 35-29 advantage on the glass. They joined UCLA and Pepperdine as the only teams to hold a lead on the glass against the Cajuns this season.
Louisiana will return to action Thursday when it hosts Texas State in a 7:15 p.m. contest at the Cajundome.