LAFAYETTE (press release) – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team opens its final week of the regular-season on Thursday when it travels to Little Rock, Ark., to face Sun Belt Conference rival Little Rock at the Jack Stephens Center.
Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Ben Creighton (pxp) and U.S. Reed (color) on the call. Fans can listen to the game in the Lafayette area on KHXT-FM (107.9) and worldwide on RaginCajuns.com with Jay Walker (PxP) and Ross Cook (color) providing the commentary.
Louisiana (17-12, 8-8 SBC), which is mired in a three-way tie with Coastal Carolina and ULM for fifth-place in the Sun Belt Conference standings, concludes the regular-season on Saturday at Arkansas State.
The top 10 teams in the Sun Belt Conference standings qualify for next week’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament with the top six seeds guaranteed a spot at New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena. A pair of campus site games, pitting the No. 7-10 seeds, will be played on Tuesday with the winners advancing to New Orleans.
JaKeenan Gant leads Louisiana in scoring (20.8), rebounds (8.8) and field goal percentage (.541) while leading the Sun Belt Conference in both blocked shots (2.7) and double-doubles (12). Marcus Stroman, the SBC leader in assists (6.4), is next in scoring (11.6) for the Ragin’ Cajuns with Jerekius Davis (9.5) and Justin Miller (9.0) next in the scoring column.
Louisiana defeated Little Rock (10-19, 5-11) earlier in the season, 75-61, behind a Cajundome-record 45 points from Gant. The Trojans, currently in a 10th-place tie heading into the final weekend, is led by Rayjon Tucker, who is averaging 20.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
