ULM holds off Cajuns in nail biter

A cold shooting night plagued the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Monday night as they dropped their third consecutive game, 57-55, to ULM at the Cajundome.
Louisiana (10-8, 4-3 SBC) shot a season-low 32.7 percent from the field and were just 2-for-18 from beyond the three-point line against the Warhawks (12-6, 6-1 SBC), who maintained sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt Conference with the win.
The Ragin’ Cajuns entered the night averaging better than 92 points per game and shooting 41 percent from three-point range on its home floor but shot below 35 percent and hit just one three in each half against a ULM defense who came in with the second-best scoring defense in the league.
The loss negated another strong performance from Morgan City High alum Shawn Long, who finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.
Devonta Walker also pulled in nine boards and put in 15 points, hitting all five of his foul shots, including four in the game’s final four minutes. In all, Louisiana was 17-for-18 at the foul line.
Louisiana trailed the entire first half, going into the halftime break down 32-30 after a late surge; however, they led by as much as four in the second half and by three as late as eight minutes into the second period.
Brian Williams’ layup cut the lead to 50-47 with 7:34 remaining, but that was the final field goal for the Cajuns as they scored each of their final eight points at the foul line. The team finished just 1-for-5 from the floor in the final eight minutes.
Tylor Ongwae was the only Warhawk in double figures, scoring 13 points with five rebounds.
But six other ULM players found the scoring column, including nine points from Jamaal Samuels and eight from Justin Roberson off the bench in helping the ULM reserves outscore the Cajuns bench, 17-5.
Williams finished with eight points, six rebounds and a pair of steals for the Cajuns.
Jay Wright added six points and five rebounds in addition to five assists against just one turnover.
ULM led by as much as nine points in the first half on a three from Samuels with less than eight minutes to play until halftime.
But after Long and Samuels traded triples, the Cajuns went on an 11-2 run to knot the game at 28 on an alley-oop from Wright to Williams.
The Cajuns then scored eight of the first 10 points of the second half, taking its first lead of the game after consecutive layups from Walker to open the half before Wright found Long and Williams for consecutive alley-oop dunks to up the lead to 38-34.
Xavian Rimmer connected on just UL’s second three of the game at the 12:15 mark to break a 39-39 tie, but Nick Coppola answered with a three and then banked in a layup as the shot clock expired to start a 9-0 ULM run that gave them the lead for good.
Two foul shots from Long with less than 40 seconds to play cut the lead to just one at 56-55, but the Warhawks ran out most of the clock on their next possession before sending Roberson to the foul line with less than three seconds to play.
Roberson missed his shot, and the Cajuns had one last chance for the winning points, but Ongwae picked off Bryce Washington’s full-court inbounds pass with less than a second on the clock to seal the win.
The Cajuns now will turn their attention to Arkansas State when the Red Wolves come to the Cajundome for a 7:15 p.m. game Thursday.