Cajuns’ Hammer McNeese, 97-64

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, fueled by a 23-2 run in the first half, cruised to a 97-64 win over long time rival McNeese State before 3,571 at the Cajundome Wednesday night.

Leading 22-17 with 11:17 to play in the first half, the Cajuns then blitzed the Cowboys over the next seven and a half minutes to build that lead to 45-19 with 4:22 left before intermission.

Shawn Long and Jay Hedgeman combined for 18 points during the big Cajuns' run, as the Cowboys turned the ball over five times and made just 1-11 from the field during that stretch.

Long finished with 24 points to lead all scorers, while Hedgeman added 13.  Jay Wright and Kasey Shepherd also finished in double figures with ten points each.

Freshman Adrian Brown was the only double figure scorer for the Cowboys with eleven points.

The Louisiana defense held the Cowboys (1-6) to just 32.4 percent shooting and held the Cowboys' leading scorer, Jamaya Burr, without a field goal until the 12:50 mark of the second half.  Burr finished with five points on 2-8 shooting.

Louisiana (3-3) played 13 different players in the game and all got into the scoring column.  Long's 24 points came in just 23 minutes of work.  He also led the Cajuns in rebounding with eleven, as the Cajuns outrebounded their opponent (46-40) for the sixth straight game.

The Cajuns opened the second half on an 11-2 run to quickly get the lead up to 33 points, 63-33, and the Cowboys never got closer than 28 points the remainder of the game.  The Cajuns led by as many as 40 points, 97-57 before the Cowboys scored the final seven points of the contest.

The Cajuns head to north Louisiana Saturday to take on Louisiana Tech in a game with a 12:05 tipoff.  The game can be seen on Cox Sports Television and heard on Hot 107.9 with airtime at 11:35am from the Thomas Assembly Center.