South Alabama men’s basketball erased a 10-point halftime deficit by scoring 56 points after the break and held on for an 89-85 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Thursday night, completing a season sweep of the Ragin’ Cajuns.
The Jaguars improved to 7-14 overall and 5-5 in the Sun Belt Conference. Louisiana-Lafayette fell to 11-10 and 5-5.
Johnson Sets Career High
Taishaun Johnson scored a career-high 23 points, 15 in the second half, and went 9-of-10 from the free throw line. Ken Williams added 19 points, Barrington Stevens III scored 17 with a game-high six assists, and Dionte Ferguson scored all 16 of his points after halftime.
How the Jaguars Took Control
A 15-4 run gave South Alabama a 58-54 lead with 10:36 left. Louisiana-Lafayette answered with a 6-2 spurt to tie the game at 60, but the Jaguars followed with a 13-4 run for a 73-64 lead with just under five minutes remaining.
South Alabama then went 6-of-15 from the free throw line over a span of 1:38, allowing the Cajuns to get within three points in the final 31.4 seconds. The Jaguars made their last five free throws to secure the win.
Graves: ‘A Hard-Fought Victory’
Head coach Matthew Graves said the Jaguars corrected two first-half problems at halftime.
“Overall, we had a solid first half except for our transition defense and rebounding the ball,” Graves said. “In the locker room we talked about how if we do those two things, we would really like the results in the second half. I thought we did an outstanding job in the second half of fighting through fatigue and a little bit of adversity. Ken [Williams] and Taishaun played with four fouls for a vast majority of that.”
Graves noted the size of the Cajuns’ roster.
“(UL Lafayette) is a really deep, physical team,” he said. “I think you can tell by watching the game that their bodies are more physically mature than ours. It’s a great lesson for us moving forward on how much we have to invest and get in the weight room. Overall, I’m really proud of our effort and how we fought all the way to the end.”
He credited balanced scoring from Williams, Stevens and Johnson.
“I think they made timely shots,” Graves said. “It wasn’t just one guy. It was by committee. They’re understanding how to play off of each other even better. When Taishaun drives, our spacing is getting better.”
“We talk about getting the ball to three sides of the floor, and we really did that,” Graves added. “It made them guard a little bit longer, and I think they wore down because of it.”
Long, Shepherd Lead Cajuns
Louisiana-Lafayette’s Shawn Long scored 20 of his game-high 26 points in the second half and grabbed 12 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season. Kasey Shepherd scored 20 points off the bench with five 3-pointers and five assists.
“We couldn’t stop them in the second half,” Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Bob Marlin said. “We came out and couldn’t defend at the level we should. We are last in the league in defense and our defending was horrible. We didn’t defend, giving them 63 percent.”
Up Next
South Alabama travels to Monroe, La., to face Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday at 4 p.m.
