Kasey Shepherd's hand appears to be just fine.

The senior guard, who ruptured a tendon in his shooting hand Saturday, scored a career high 27 points to lead six in double figures as Louisiana defeated South Alabama 92-82 for their third straight win.

Shepherd made 7-10 field goals, including 6-8 from three point range and 7-8 free throws to lead the Cajuns (8-8, 4-3 Sun Belt) before 4,050 at the Cajundome.

Hayward Register scored in double figures for the second straight game with 13 points, while Bryce Washington added twelve.  Jay Wright and Johnathan Stove chipped in ten points each  Shawn Long, who was saddled with foul trouble most of the night, scored eleven points, leaving him two shy of 2,000 points for his career.

Ken WIlliams, South Alabama's leading scorer, led the way with 16 points, but most of them came after the game was out of reach.  Shaq Calhoun added 13 points while Nick Stover and Barrington Stevens added 12 points each.

"I thought we did a good job on Williams for the most part," head coach Bob Marlin said.  "They were hot early and some of those baskets were well contested.  But we started making shots and getting to the free throw line and were able to come back."

The game was marred by nine technical fouls, five against the Jaguars.  South Alabama was whistled for 33 fouls, enabling the Cajuns to score 34 points (34-47) from the free throw line.  South Alabama (7-11, 2-5) made just 12-22.

"I didn't like all of that talking that was going on," said Marlin, "and I went to the officials at the end of the half and said 'you gotta call that.'  Then we found out after we got in the locker room what they decided.  I felt I had to stick up for our guys."

The Jaguars were hot early, making ten of their first 15 shots to start the game and had a 26-18 lead with 7:23 to play in the first half.  The lead was 31-24 with 5:42 left after a three pointer by Stover.  But Shepherd hit back to back triples 30 seconds apart to cut the lead to one.

The game was tied at 36 but the Cajuns ran off six straight points on a layup by Jay Hedgeman and two free throws each from Register and Stove.  But Williams hit a pair of free throws and scored on a layup at the buzzer to cut the lead to two points, 46-44 at the break.

As the first half ended, words were exchanged and players had to be separated and the officials spent a lot of time at the monitor.  They ruled a technical foul against WIlliams, a technical foul with contact (flagrant one) against John Brown and a technical foul on the Cajuns' bench.

Williams made one free throw and Shepherd hit four straight before the second half began and  Stove scored on a jumper to give the Cajuns a 52-45 lead just :21 seconds into the second half.  Shepherd followed with a three pointer and after Stover made a free throw, Shepherd hit another bomb to give the Cajuns a twelve point lead.  Stove scored on a layup at the 16;50 mark to end a 14-2 run and the Cajuns led 60-46.

It was 62-50 after a Tafari Whittingham bucket and then the Cajuns followed with another 8-0 run on four free throws by Wright and buckets by Stove and Washington, as the Cajuns outscored the Jaguars 24-6 in the first 6:48.  The Cajuns' biggest lead was 21, 86-65 with 4:51 to play   South Alabama closed the game on an 11-2 run for the final margin.

The Cajuns shot 44.4 percent for the game and hit 10-23 from three point range, giving the squad 21 triples in their last two games.  South Alabama shot well the entire game, finishing with 58.5% (31-53) but the Cajuns used the big advantage at the free throw line and forced 21 turnovers en route to the win.

The Cajuns will go for their fourth straight win Saturday when they welcome Troy to the Cajundome in a game that has been moved up an hour for the ESPN3 telecast.  Tip off is now scheduled for 6:30pm.

 

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