Late scoring spree puts away Trojans
For a minute, it appeared as if Monday’s turning point had come.
With the University of Arkansas at Little Rock up three points, the referees blew play dead, signaling for a technical foul on the Louisiana-Lafayette bench. And even when the Trojans couldn’t convert their two free throws, Mayra Caicedo came up clutch, canning a three-pointer from the wing that gave UALR a 42-37 advantage and looked to be the spark it needed to close out a second win in three days.
But an overpowering run from the Ragin’ Cajuns — 15-1 over just more than four minutes — turned the contest on its head, sending visiting Louisiana-Louisiana past UALR (6-6, 2-3 Sun Belt Conference) for a 54-45 win at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
The Ragin’ Cajuns, who entered the night atop the Sun Belt’s West Division, came out of a fourth-quarter media timeout firing, taking the lead at 44-43 on a hardcharging layup by forward Ty Doucet that she turned into a three-point play. The visitors then pushed their
final burst to 7-1 before another three-point play from Destiny McAfee made it 49-43 with 2:38 to go and took nearly all the air out of a shorthanded UALR squad playing its third game in four days.
“This was a game of experience versus non-experience,” Trojans Coach Joe Foley said. “They were a little bit tougher than we were the last part of the game. They created a lot of layups for themselves, we missed a lot of easy shots, so that’s just experience right there.”
The last part of Monday’s contest wasn’t anything like the first. UALR raced out to a 17-6 lead in the first quarter, leaning on its strong defense to seize control.
What made the start all the more impressive was how the Trojans built that lead — although Louisiana-Lafayette (55, 4-1) found a handful of points at the free-throw line — UALR held the Ragin’ Cajuns without a field goal throughout the opening quarter. It marked the first time UALR had held an opponent scoreless in a quarter since Dec. 31, 2016.
And that defensive energy carried into the second quarter, with Louisiana-Lafayette failing to get its first bucket from the field until the 7:30 mark, a layup from Doucet to snap an 0 for 12 start.
All the while, UALR had no real issues generating its offense, mostly thanks to Ky’lie Scott. The sophomore from Denton, Texas, scored 13 of her team-high 17 points in the opening half, knocking down 3 three-point baskets before the break.
With the Trojans playing just seven players after being on a 20-day pause due to covid-19, what started as a strong performance quickly faded.
“They were driving and getting layups,” Foley said of the Ragin’ Cajuns, who outscored the hosts 48-28 over the final three quarters. “[Caicedo’s three-pointer], that got us a chance to stay in the game until our defense faltered.
“And again, we’ve done a good job defensively, but tonight was the test. I knew they were going to play a lot of 1-on-1, and they just whipped us.”
Helping out Scott offensively was Alayzha Knapp, who finished with 12 points as the only other UALR player in double figures despite dealing with foul trouble.
But it wasn’t enough to overcome a Ragin’ Cajun team that has lost just once in conference play.
“This was just a good lesson,” Foley said. “You’ve got kids out there who haven’t played in a big game like that. … We had very little time to prepare, but I told them all day yesterday and today, ‘They’re going to play you 1-on-1 and if you can’t stay in front of them, we’re going to have a tough time.’ ”