Cajuns Begin “Texas Two-Step” at UTA

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns have torn through their Sun Belt schedule thus far en route to a 5-0 league record.

But now the road beckons as the Cajuns face two tough tests, beginning Thursday night when Louisiana visits defending regular season champion UTA. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:15pm at the College Park Center in Arlington, TX.

The Cajuns (15-3, 5-0) have won their five conference games by 13, 10, 33, 17 and 34 points with the last three wins coming at the Cajundome, where Louisiana has amassed a 9-0 record this season.  The Cajuns have now won eleven straight Sun Belt games dating back to last season, which is a school record.

UTA (12-7, 3-3) has won three of its last four games after dropping its first two league contests at Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State.  The Mavericks, who were picked to repeat as regular season champions, have lost only once at the College Park Center this season, a non-conference loss to Florida Gulf Coast.

The Mavericks are led by reigning SBC Player of the Year Kevin Hervey, who is second in the league in scoring, averaging 20.4 ppg.  Point guard Erick Neal, like Hervey a first team all Sun Belt Player, leads the league in assists (7.7) and is second on the team with 14.1 ppg.  Graduate transfer Johnny Hamilton (Virginia Tech) averages 12.4 and is second in the league in blocks behind Louisiana's JaKeenan Gant.

Bryce Washington has averaged a double double (10.5ppg, 10.5 rpg) this season for the Cajuns and moved into 32nd place on the all-time scoring list with his performance against ULM.  He also passed Dion Brown and moved into fourth place on the all-time rebounding list.

Frank Bartley IV leads the Cajuns in scoring (16.1) and needs just nine points to get to the 1,000 point mark in his Division I career, including his two years at BYU.  Gant (15.6) returned after missing two games with a thumb injury and scored 12 points last Saturday, while Jonathan Stove is the other Cajun in double figures (10.2)  Marcus Stroman (6.0) is second in the league in assists.

Following the game,The Cajuns will head south down I-35 to face Texas State on Saturday in a 430 contest in San Marcos.

Tonight's game is part of a doubleheader as the Cajun women look for their fifth straight league win, taking on UTA with tipoff at 5:00 pm.  Both games can be heard on ESPN1420, with Hot 107.9 also picking up men's action.