UC Irvine edges Cajuns, 67-66

UC Irvine’s Mike Best hit a fall-away jumper with 3.6 seconds remaining, and the Anteaters fought off a valiant comeback by the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team with a 67-66 win in the quarterfinals of the 2016 CollegeInsider.com Tournament Wednesday at the Cajundome.
Alex Young scored 21 points, including five 3-pointers, as UC Irvine (27-9) built a 16-point lead in the first half and led 48-33 on 7-foot-2 center Ioannis Dimakopoulos’ 3-pointer with 18:08 remaining.
Louisiana (19-15), which shot a season-low 32.9 percent (23-for-70) on its home floor, responded with a 16-2 run that cut the lead to 50-49 with 10:38 remaining. Johnathan Stove, who scored five of his 13 points in the run, buried a 3-pointer from the right corner before Hayward Register drained a 3-pointer on the following possession to get the Cajuns back into the game.
After UC Irvine pushed its lead to 57-51, Louisiana went on an 8-0 run to take its first lead of the night as Kasey Shepherd connected on a 3-pointer with 6:13 remaining.
The Ragin’ Cajuns trailed 65-60 after a layup by UC Irvine’s Luke Nelson with 2:24 left before fighting back and reclaiming the lead. Shepherd, who finished with 12 points, scored on a layup for the Ragin’ Cajuns before Shawn Long, a Morgan City High alum, cut the lead to 65-64 with 1:08 left after scoring on a Bryce Washington miss in the lane.
The Anteaters missed on their next possession as Dimakopoulos’ 3-pointer from the top of the key bounced off the iron, and Long collected the rebound. The Cajuns took the lead with 22.4 seconds remaining as Wright connected on a short baseline leaner before Best sank his eventual game-winner after his shot bounced a couple of times on the rim and fell in.
Long, who moved past Keith Lee (Memphis) and David Robinson (Navy) into sole possession of 12th on the NCAA career list for double-doubles (75), had a chance to win the game for the Ragin’ Cajuns after a timeout, but his heavily contested jumper in the lane missed off the iron at the buzzer.
Jaron Martin added 12 points for the Anteaters with Dimalopoulos adding 11. Freshman Jonathan Galloway added eight points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots for UC Irvine, which won for the 17th time in the past 21 games and improved to 12-4 in road games this season.
Stove and Devonta Walker, one of six seniors playing in his final game in a Louisiana uniform, each scored 13 points to lead the Ragin’ Cajuns, with Washington adding 10 points and nine rebounds.
The loss ended one of the most prolific careers in Ragin’ Cajuns history as Long set career school records in rebounds (1,447), blocked shots (273), double-doubles (75) and games started (131). The 6-foot-11 product finished second overall in minutes played (4,017), moving past former Ragin’ Cajuns star Graylin Warner (4,011).
Long, the all-time Sun Belt Conference leader in rebounds and second in both blocked shots and scoring, finished behind Dwight “Bo” Lamar and Andrew Toney on the Ragin’ Cajuns all-time scoring list with 2,342 points.
Shepherd, who became the 43rd player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark in last week’s win at Furman, finished sixth in school history in 3-pointers made (162) and tied for seventh in steals (148).
Steven Wronkoski, who joined Long and Shepherd as four-year letter winners for Louisiana, finished as the school’s all-time leader in games played (136).