Ja'Keenan Gant and Bryce Washington had double doubles and six players scored in double figures as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns came back from a 13 point first half deficit to defeated Southeastern Louisiana 82-74 for their seventh straight win.

Trailing 27-14 with 7:59 to play in the first half, Louisiana (10-2) went on a 17-0 run to take a lead they never relinquished.  Louisiana led by as many as 14 points in the second half before settling for the final score.

"I thought we settled early," head coach Bob Marlin said.  "We wanted to play inside out and we didn't do that.  And, we had some open threes but they were too early in the clock.  But we finally made some plays and got some stops.'

Gant led the scoring with 14 points and a career high twelve rebounds.  Frank Bartley had 13 points, while Washington had twelve points and eleven boards.  Malik Marquetti also had twelve points, Marcus Stroman scored eleven in just 14 minutes and Johnathan Stove added ten points off the bench for the Cajuns.

Marlain Veal led all scorers for Southeastern (6-6) with 23 points on 9-15 shooting.  Moses Greenwood added 14 points, while Jordan Capps scored twelve points and James Currington added eleven for the Lions.

The Cajuns held a commanding 39-26 advantage on the boards with Louisiana hauling in 17 offensive rebounds, with ten coming in the second half.

Trailing 27-14, the Cajuns started their run with four straight free throws from Bartley.  Gant scored on a dunk, Washington made a layup, Stove hit a triple and Washington dunked to tie the game at 27.  Washington hit two more buckets to give the Cajuns a four point lead before a dunk by Currington cut the lead to 31-29 at the half.

After Bartley hit a three pointer to increase the Cajuns lead to 34-29, the Lions went on a 10-4 run to take the lead on a Capps layup with 16:23 to play.  But Gant hit a triple 14 seconds later to give the Cajuns the lead for good.  A dunk by Gant, and layups by Stroman and Marquetti increased the lead to 47-39 and the Cajuns were never in danger the rest of the way.

Southeastern shot 51.9% (28-54) for the game, including 68% in the second half.  But the Cajuns shot nearly 55% in the second half en route to scoring 51 points after intermission.

The Cajuns will play their next three games away from the Cajundome, heading to Clemson on Friday before taking a break for the Christmas holidays.  Tip time is at 2:00 pm.

More From 103.3 The GOAT