Coastal men fall at Louisiana, 108-101, will travel to UTA to open the Sun Belt tournament

LAFAYETTE, La. – Malik LeGania scored a career-high 24 points, but it was not enough as Coastal Carolina fell to Louisiana 108-101 in a Sun Belt Conference shootout.

The Chants led by as many as 16 points (49-33) right before halftime, but the Ragin’ Cajuns scored six straight points in the final few seconds and carried that momentum into the second half where they scored 69 points.

Turnovers continue to haunt the Chants and as Louisiana began making their run, CCU had four turnovers which UL turned into eight points to take their first lead at 65-63 on a steal and layup.

The hosts came into the game at the bottom of the conference in three-point shooting, but hit 16 of their 35 attempts (46%) and also took advantage of their free throws hitting 26-of-32 (81%).

The Chants had plenty of scoring as Tommy Burton scored 19 points, and completed his seventh double-double of the season with 10 rebounds.

Garrick Green scored 17 points, DeVante’ Jones added 12 and Tyrell Gumbs-Frater finished with 11. Jones had a game-high nine assists.

CCU had a solid shooting night finishing the game shooting 48 percent (36-75) from the field and 52 percent (12-23) on its three-point attempts. They also did a good job at the free throw line making 17-of-22.

Cedric Russell had a game-high 28 points to lead five Ragin’ Cajuns in scoring. P.J. Hardy scored 24 points and Jalen Johnson finished with 19. Dou Gueye finished with 12 points and Mylik Wilson added 10.

CCU grabbed 42 rebounds compared to only 29 for Louisiana led by Burton. Green had seven and three other players had four.

The Chants led 49-39 at halftime after shooting 50 percent in the first half and that includes hitting eight-of-13 three’s for 62 percent. LeGania led the way with 12 first half points and Jones added 10.

CCU grabbed 23 rebounds with six of those on the offensive end leading to eight second chance points.

Louisiana also shot well from the field hitting eight-of-19 three’s for 42 percent and shot 41 percent from the field overall. Russell led the way with 14 first-half points and Hardy added eight.

CCU will now travel to Texas Arlington to face the Mavericks in the opening round of the Sun Belt Conference Championship Saturday, March 7. The two teams have met twice this season with CCU winning both games. The times will be made available at a later date by the Sun Belt Conference office.