Cajuns Fall to Texas State, 68-59
Sun Belt leading scorer Nijal Pearson scored 18 points, including four three pointers to lead Texas State past Louisiana 68-59 Saturday night before 3,649 at the Cajundome.
Mason Harrell and Isiah Small added twelve points apiece for the Bobcats (12-8, 5-4 Sun Belt) who won for the first time in seven tries at the Cajundome. It was the fourth straight win for Texas State.
Jalen Johnson had 18 points to lead the Cajuns (7-13, 2-7) who dropped their fourth straight. Dou Gueye and P. J. Hardy each had eleven points for the Cajuns.
The Cajuns, playing without guard Cedric Russell, who missed his first game of the season (foot), shot just 33.3% in the first half and trailed by nine, 37-28 at the half. Louisiana came out of the locker room and scored the game's first eight points in the second half as Tiras Smith scored six straight points and Gueye added a jumper to cut the lead to 37-36 two minutes into the second half.
But Texas State responded with a ten point run of their own to regain the double digit lead and the Cajuns never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
Texas State outshot the Cajuns from the field, 42.6 percent to 35.7 and hit 8-25 from beyond the arc, compared to 6-19 for the Cajuns.
Louisiana will have the week off before meeting ULM next Saturday night at the Cajundome.