Cajuns Hammer Arkansas State for Sixth Straight Win

Anytime you never trail in a game on the road, that's a good thing.

And that's what happened in the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 81-57 win over Arkansas State Saturday night before 1,703 in the Convocation Center in Jonesboro, AR.

The Cajuns (19-12) won for the sixth straight time and never trailed in getting the biggest road margin of victory in the history of the series, and the most lopsided win at the Convocation Center, surpassing the 105-87 win back on February 24, 1990.

Hayward Register nailed six three point shots and led the Cajuns in scoring with 19 points.  Shawn Long collected his 15th double double of the year and his 51st of his career, scoring 17 points with 12 rebounds.  Jay Wright added 14 points and Johnathan Stove tallied ten, all in the first half.

But the player of the game for the Cajuns was freshman Bryce Washington, who scored eight points, hauled in a career high 12 rebounds and a career high six assists with two steals.  He did not have a turnover in 32 minutes of play.

Arkansas State finished their season with a record of 11-18, 6-14 in the league.  Anthony Livingston scored 17 points and added eleven rebounds, while P. J. Hardwick had 13 points with four assists.

The Cajuns held an opponent under 40% shooting for the fourth time in the last five games as the Red Wolves shot 35.1% and made only 6-22 from the field in the final twenty miinutes.

After a 2-2 tie, the Cajuns worked the lead to as many as seven points before a Livingston jumper tied the score at 19 with 9:33 left in the first half.  The Cajuns led 35-31 with 2:23 remaining before Wright hit a layup and a three pointer in the final minute, stretching the Cajuns' lead to 43-33 at the break.

Louisiana then opened the second half on a 10-2 run to stretch the lead to 18 points and the Red Wolves didn't get their first field goal until more than five minutes had passed in the second half.  The Cajuns increased the lead to 22 points, 60-38 on a Register three pointer with 12:06 left.  Arkansas State got back to within 14 after a 9-1 run, but would get no closer the rest of the night.

The Cajuns will now head to New Orleans for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament as the #4 seed, where they will play the winner of Thursday's game between #5 UT Arlington and #8 Texas State Friday at 5pm.