The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball team lost both of their road trip games last week, falling in rematches with the Texas State Bobcats on Wednesday, Feb. 19 and the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks on Saturday, Feb. 22.
This skid put the Cajuns at a losing 12–14 overall record, and left the team stuck at the No. 7 spot in the Sun Belt standings, tied with Old Dominion at 8–8 in conference play.
Just a week before, the Cajuns were able to best both of these opponents convincingly at home with the same starters and very similar rotations.
One of the main differences in the margins that led to these defeats was a closer level of paint scoring.
In a press conference held Feb. 17 before the trip, Head Coach Garry Brodhead talked about the team’s performance and interior scoring ability in the home stand.
“I don’t know how many points we had in the paint, but it was a lot. We’ve been scoring a lot of points in the paint,” Brodhead said.
“That’s our team, I think. Offensively, I guess they’d call us ‘penetrators’. We’re trying to get into the lane, pitch out, get into the lane, and I think we’re getting better at it.”
Brodhead also saw the effort on securing rebounds and sweating the details on defense as pivotal to the team’s success.
“As small as we are, we’re doing a pretty good job keeping other teams off the board, and any time you can hold people into the sixties and stuff like that, I think we’ve got an opportunity to win some games,” Brodhead said.
Brodhead spoke glowingly of graduate transfer Skylah Travis, whose recent contributions as a rebounder off the bench had become necessary due to injuries across the roster.
“As a transfer, we didn’t watch her on tape, but she hadn’t really played that much at the places she was at before, but we could see she could rebound in practice. We didn’t think she could score like that,” Brodhead said.
“I’ve been here thirteen years and we haven’t been very good at offensive rebounding or rebounding in general, but I think she brings a lot to the table.”
In both volume and efficiency, the Cajuns did not dominate in prior fashion, as the Bobcats and Warhawks managed a combined 45% from the field (up from 36%) on much closer paint point totals.
In Wednesday’s game, the Bobcats took a decent lead off of a few 3-point shots in the second quarter, but things remained close down the stretch.
With just five minutes left in the contest, the Cajuns pulled to within two, but a series of wild turnovers and scrambles ended in Texas State’s favor, and they would manage to pull away off clutch drives and free throws, 69–58.
Most of the team struggled in their usual roles; Erica Lafayette only hit one 3-pointer, Lanay Wheaton went 0–6 in her minutes off the bench, and Tamiah Robinson committed six turnovers.
In Saturday’s Women’s History Month game, both teams came out struggling a lot on offense, producing just 51 points combined through the first half.
Things started to step up late in the third quarter, though, as each team started to find its range from the floor.
Down the stretch, multiple lead changes occurred, but the decisive moment came with just one minute left and ULM securing a one-point lead. Robinson missed a jumper to tie, and the Hawks secured the board, and the game ended 62–58.
Again, the woes came mostly in areas the team typically excels at. No player recorded double-digit rebounds, no starter managed to score a 3-pointer and the team only generated nine free-throw attempts.
If the team manages to win out and pass up the Monarchs, the Sun Belt Conference Championship tournament’s new format won’t affect the Cajuns much, and the old ‘three games in March’ outside shot will apply.
If the team drops another and stays in this seventh spot, though, it will take a fourth win to get out of Pensacola with an NCAA Tournament bid.
Next up for the Cajuns is a trip to Reed Green Coliseum to face the Southern Miss Golden Eagles for their final game of the regular season on Friday, Feb. 28, followed by the conference tournament starting Tuesday, Mar. 4.