Louisiana turned up the heat early and never backed down, earning its 10th straight win in Sun Belt Conference play with a 77-67 win over the Thundering Herd in men’s basketball Saturday night at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana.
The loss drops Marshall to 19-6 overall and 8-4 in league play, now sitting level with James Madison and tied for third in the standings. The Ragin’ Cajuns (20-4, 10-2) remain in a tie for first place with Southern Miss while evening up the all-time series with the Herd, with their fourth win in eight meetings.
“They came out intent on winning the ball game, and we came out to play a ball game, and you just can’t do that,” Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni said after the loss.
Jordan Brown helped the Cajuns race to a double-digit lead in the first half and stay in front by that margin pretty comfortably with a 17-point, 14-rebound double-double in just the first half. Greg Williams Jr. supplemented that effort with nine points of his own as the Herd struggled to settle in Saturday night.
A six-and-a-half-minute drought without a field goal didn’t help the Herd’s case in the Cajundome, limiting even further an offensive performance that was hindered by poor shooting.
After Obinna Anochili-Killen made a transition layup to bring Marshall within four points, 10-6, the Ragin’ Cajuns scored eight consecutive points to push the lead to double digits.
Louisiana is the best in the league when it comes to limiting opponents’ chances on the boards, and Saturday night proved just how valuable a statistic that is.
The Cajuns were only allowing teams an average of 30 rebounds per contest, and the Herd managed just 25. Marshall was outrebounded by 22 in the loss. Louisiana scored 15 second-chance points off 16 offensive rebounds.
“They just go and attack the ball. Go and get the ball,” the Herd’s Taevion Kinsey said. “It’s not so much of a boxing-out thing as when the ball goes up, they go and get it.”
Brown finished the night with 26 points and 20 rebounds in the win, but D’Antoni said that wasn’t the determining factor. In his eyes, it still came down to effort.
“Obviously, without him they might be in trouble,” D’Antoni said, “but even with him, if we had played early like we’re supposed to and come out with a fire to get after them, we might have won this ball game.”
Louisiana kept the Herd at arm’s length, even after Andrew Taylor’s first points of the night pulled Marshall within eight with a triple near the buzzer at halftime. The Cajuns responded with a 7-0 scoring run out of the intermission to get the lead back to 15.
Taylor finished with just seven points in the loss. It was the first time this season in which he failed to score at least 10 points. Kinsey led all scorers with 28 points.
With under 10 minutes to play, the Herd trimmed the lead to single digits, but never could pull things level, and Louisiana secured the win at home in front of 5,321 fans on its senior night.
The Herd ended the night shooting 39% from the floor, compared to an even 50% for the home team. Williams (20 points) now has scored at least 20 in five consecutive games.
“We fought back and had chances at the end, but missed a couple opportunities right there,” D’Antoni said. “We had to play perfect because of the beginning, where we didn’t start like we have to in these kind of games.”
Luke Creasy is a reporter for The Herald-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @LukeCreasy or reach him by phone at 304-526-2800.
