Ragin’ Cajuns Pay Back UT-Arlington In Their House

After losing to UT-Arlington in the Cajundome two weeks ago, the Ragin' Cajuns gave the Mavericks a dose of their own medicine on Saturday.

More importantly, the 81-70 victory puts UL into fourth place in the Sun Belt standings with only three games left before the conference tournament. It always helps when you're raining three's in somebody else's gym.

The culprit from deep was sophomore guard Hayward Register, who drained five three's in the first half to help the Cajuns jump all over the Mavericks early. At halftime, UT-Arlington trailed, 40-27, and they were never able to recover from the early blitz from the Cajuns. Register's 15 points all came in the first half, but he got a little help from some of the usual suspects.

Perpetual paint predator Shawn Long collected an almost expected double-double (21 points, 15 rebounds), and there was a near triple-double in the back court from Jay Wright.

The conductor of the Cajuns offense put up 15 points and collected 10 rebounds, and he only came up three assists shy of the triple double. Head Coach Bob Marlin often refers to Wright's importance to their success as a team, and his worth was on full display in Arlington. Coaches like to call games "team efforts" all the time, and often it's just coach speak. The term actually applies for this win.

Shots were falling for the Cajuns (29-59 FG, 49.2%), and they held the Mavericks to only 34% from the field. The Cajuns outrebounded them in their own house and forced them into a negative assist to turnover ratio (10:12). Four different Cajuns broke double-digits in the scoring column, which all adds up to the sweet taste of payback.

With the win, the Ragin' Cajuns improve to 16-12 overall and 10-7 in Sun Belt play. Up next for the Cajuns, two straight home games against Georgia Southern and UALR, then they finish up the regular season with a possibly critical matchup against Arkansas State.