Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns jumped out to an early 9-0 lead and forced 25 turnovers en route to a 77-60 thrashing of the Lamar Cardinals Tuesday night at the Cajundome.

The Cajuns held the Cardinals scoreless through the first media timeout en route to the early lead.  Lamar closed to within six points at the under twelve time out, but Louisiana got scoring inside from Shawn Long and sharp shooting outside from Alan-Michael Thompson and led by 18 points at the break.  Lamar never got closer than 15 points the rest of the way.

A stifling Cajuns defense forced Lamar (1-8) into seventeen first half turnovers.  Louisiana (4-6) led by as many as 24 points in the second half before settling in for the final margin.

Thompson, a senior from Florence, S.C. had a career high 18 points to lead the Cajuns.  Thompson was 5-9 from the field and 4-7 from behind the arc.

Freshman Shawn Long and sophomore Elfrid Payton had double-doubles for the second straight game.  Payton had 17 points and Long had 16.  Each had eleven rebounds, as Payton had a career high in that category for the second straight game.

Bryant Mbamalu had ten points to round out the Cajuns scoring.

The Cajuns are back in action Saturday night at Houston for their final non-conference road game of the season.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7pm at the Hofheinz Pavilion.

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