Ragin’ Cajuns Hold Off Troy For Overtime Victory

Troy tried to steal the victory right out of the Ragin' Cajuns mouths at the end, but a total team effort held off the Trojans for the 84-80 overtime win.After leading by a comfortable margin for the majority of the game, the Cajuns committed four turnovers in the final minute of play. That was the opportunity the Trojans needed to convert on four straight FG's and to eventually force overtime after Kevin Thomas sank two FT's with less than a second remaining.

Head Ragin' Cajun Basketball Coach Bob Marlin's team did almost everything right up until the last few moments.

"We were trying to take it in regulation, but we didn't do what we needed to do in the final thirty seconds," Marlin said after the stressful win.

The Cajuns could have caved to momentum in overtime. Both teams traded the lead in the extra period, but Coach Marlin's squad dug deep to pull out the overtime win in gutsy fashion.

Shawn Long committed three early fouls before even reaching the 10:00 mark of the first half, but he went the rest of the game without committing another. He led the Cajuns with 17 points, but most importantly, he hit two free throws with four seconds left in overtime to ice the Trojans. His coach noticed the level head, and the shots.

"He stepped up and made them," Marlin said.

Long led the way, but five different Cajuns entered double-figures in scoring on the night. Jay Wright put up 16, and he had a couple huge layups in the extra period. Brian Williams registered a solid 14 point, 6 rebound performance with four dimes. Bryce Washington dropped ten and Steven Wronkoski provided a solid spark off the bench with 13 points. Put it all together for a team shooting percentage of 48.3%. Team effort.

The win puts the Cajuns back over .500 in the Sun Belt with an 8-7 record in conference play, and the Cajuns will have four full days in between games to recover before playing Texas State in the Cajundome on Thursday.

In what has been an up-and-down road through the Sun Belt conference for Coach Marlin's Ragin Cajuns, this rise sees them returning home sitting on a win.