Cajuns Early Barrage Buries UTA 90-70

A 14-0 Louisiana run over a 3 1/2 minute period of the first half enabled Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns to open up a 13 point lead, and the home team never looked back in a 90-70 rout over the Texas-Arlington Mavericks Saturday afternoon at the Cajundome.

Trailing 8-7 at the 17:01 mark, the Cajuns got a pair of three pointers from Kasey Shepherd, a three from Kevin Brown and five points from Shawn Long to open up a 21-8 lead with 13:26 to play in the first half.

The Mavericks never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Louisiana quickly got back the double figure lead on two Xavian Rimmer free throws and worked the lead to eighteen points at halftime 45-29.

The Cajuns quickly worked the lead to 20 points on an Elfrid Payton layup at the 18:47 mark and UTA fell behind by as many as 27 points, 71-44 with 9:19 to play.  The Mavericks got no closer than 15 points.

Louisiana (10-5, 1-1 Sun Belt) got balanced scoring with four players in double figures.  Shawn Long led the way with 22 points on 8-17 shooting.  Kasey Shepherd hit three triples en route to scoring 17 points, while Payton and Rimmer added twelve each.

UTA (6-10, 1-3) played its second straight game without leading scorer Reger Dowell and was paced by Lonnie McClanahan, who notched a career high for the second time in two outings with 27 points.  Brandon Edwards was the only other player in double figures with ten points.

The Cajuns shot 45.5 percent from the field (25-55), 40.9 percent from beyond the arc (9-22) and shot free throws at a 79.5 percent clip (31-39.)

The Mavericks, who nailed twelve triples in their win over Louisiana-Monroe Thursday night, managed only 5-20 against the Cajuns.  Louisiana held UTA under 40 percent for the game, 24-61.

Long had nine rebounds and seven blocked shots to go with his 22 points in 28 minutes of play.  Payton had seven assists and five rebounds along with three steals.

The Cajuns are back in action Monday night against the Bobcats of Texas State.  Gametime at the Cajundome will be at 7:05.