The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball team lost both their matchups last week, against both the Appalachian State Mountaineers on Thursday, Jan. 30, and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on Saturday, Feb. 1.
These losses ended another fruitless road trip for the Cajuns, dragging their conference record down to 5–6.
During a Jan. 27 press conference in preparation for the team’s trip, Head Coach Garry Brodhead talked about what he expected from the trip and what new matchups the team might face.
“I have no clue too much about [matchups] going into this next series,” Brodhead said. “App State’s got a new coach, we don’t know their system as good, it’ll be the first time, and then Coastal is playing really well.”
“It’s gonna be a tough series to go out and try to get some wins, but we got what we got and I think we’re probably gonna have eight players [in rotation] again for this.”
Asked further about the element of surprise around App State and what, if anything he could expect in such a pivotal game, Brodhead pointed to their pace and floor-spacing ability.
“They’ve kinda calmed down a little bit, but they’ve got good guard play,” Brodhead said. “They shoot the ball pretty good, and they always were able to run transition and find open people.”
“Their inside game was never really that strong, but shooting threes and that kind of stuff. I don’t know at this point exactly what they’re running to be able to get those things.”
He added that an assistant had been scouting the matchup and had prepared some tape for him and the team.
Brodhead also discussed what he looks for in wins to get the players focused on positively.
“I actually talked last week about our strengths,” Brodhead said. “You build confidence off of playing off of your strengths and I wanted our players to play off their strengths. Don’t worry about your weakness.”
“Some of these kids that came off the bench that hadn’t played that much had to do a little bit more, rebound more. I think that was the biggest thing for us: can we rebound and defend a little bit better?”
Brodhead went in-depth about the growth of players like freshman Ashtyn Jones and what he wants to develop in his frontcourt players.
“I was more impressed by [Jones’] scoring from the inside in the paint,” Brodhead said of Jones’ play against Troy. “I’ve been preaching all year with our hybrids, ‘Use the backboard’, really for thirteen years I’ve been preaching.”
“You’ve gotta be able to learn how to use the backboard and a lot of these kids these days don’t really like to, and she’s one that has bought into it, and I think it’s elevated her game.”
The No.-4-in-conference Mountaineers and Cajuns played as gritty of a match as expected Thursday, going run for run and, in a dead heat, holding each other scoreless for over four minutes in the third quarter.
Through the game, senior guard Nubia Benedith took on facilitating the offense, playing 37 minutes and recording a career-high 22 points (leading all players), going 7–14 from the field and hitting all six of her free throws.
Unfortunately, the Cajuns fell behind at the end of the third thanks to a brutal series of momentum-killing turnovers and transition baskets which the team never managed to get back, losing 61–52.
Against the Chanticleers, the teams again kept things pretty close as the Cajuns overcame an early barrage to have the score within five midway through the fourth quarter. Coastal only needed to maintain their lead down the stretch, though, which they did, with their guards Mallory Bruce and Dalanna Carter scoring the needed buckets in clutch time to bring the score to 77–68.
Benedith had a harder time in this one, scraping together 4–9 from the field (no free throws) and committing five turnovers. Whereas she struggled, Erica Lafayette took over, leading all scorers with 24 points on 6–13 from the field and 66% true shooting.
Next up for the team is a game back in the Cajundome against a non-conference opponent, the Miami Red Hawks, on Saturday, Feb. 8, followed by a match against the Texas State Bobcats on Wednesday, Feb. 12.