Cajuns Get Past North Texas, 64-62

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun men's basketball team picked up a pivotal Sun Belt Conference home win on Wednesday night, squeaking past the North Texas Mean Green, 64-62, at the Cajundome.

UL led by as many as six points in the first half, and took a slim, 28-27, lead in to the locker room at halftime.

Louisiana had a ten-point lead at the 4:32 mark, but North Texas refused to give up, and had a chance to tie, or take the lead, when they had the ball, trailing 64-62, with 11.6 seconds remaining.

The Cajun defense came up big however, forcing a missed three-point attempt, and a missed put-back attempt, to hang on for the slim two-point win.

To understand how close the game really was, look no further than the final statistics:

North Texas shot 37.9 % from the floor, while UL shot 37.3 %.

The Cajuns made four three-point shots, compared to three for the Mean Green.

Louisiana converted on 16 free throws, while North Texas connected on 15 shots from the line.

The Mean Green had a two-rebound advantage on the boards (40-38), and each team committed an equal amount of turnovers (13).

Sophomore guard Bryant Mbamalu led the way for the Cajuns, scoring a game-high 19 points, to go along with six rebounds, while junior forward Roger Franklin paced North Texas, in a losing cause, with 15 points and 11 boards.

With the win, UL improved to 11-11 overall, and 5-3 in Sun Belt Conference play, while North Texas fell to 12-9 overall, and 5-3 in league play.

UL head coach Bob Marlin with his squad

Yahoo! Sports has a game box score.