Men's Basketball
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photo courtesy of Rick Yeatts
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Final Cajundome Road Trip For Mean Green |
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North Texas (8-14, 3-8 SBC) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (7-15, 3-8 SBC) DENTON, Texas – Louisiana-Lafayette landed the last punch in a back-and-forth contest that saw the Ragin’ Cajuns walk out of the Super Pit with an 80-76 win back on Dec. 1. On Thursday, North Texas heads to Cajun country to even the score against one of the Sun Belt’s most dangerous teams. Tip off from the Cajundome is slated for 7 p.m., and can be heard in DFW on the Mean Green Radio Network. The trip to the Cajundome will be the last for North Texas as Sun Belt Conference rivals. That December matchup featured 15 ties and 15 lead changes, and NT led, 73-71, with 2:12 to play thanks to a Jordan Williams 3-pointer. Chris Jones posted a season-high 23 points, but it wasn’t enough to derail Shawn Long’s 27 points for the Cajuns. This time, Louisiana-Lafayette will have to deal with Williams and Roger Franklin who are red-hot of late. Williams has posted back-to-back 20-plus point outings, including 22 points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point against UALR. Franklin, a senior, is averaging 18.8 points on 63.8 percent shooting and 7.5 rebounds over the last four games. NT got two players back from injury last week, but is still far from full strength. Just 22 games into the season, NT’s injuries have already accounted for 46 individual games missed. In fact, twice this season - including last Saturday’s win at Florida Atlantic - NT has taken the court with just seven scholarship players. With nine regular season games remaining, North Texas would be the No. 10 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament if it were to start today, although a win at Louisiana-Lafayette would go a long way in helping NT climb the standings. The Mean Green and the Cajuns are tied at 3-8 in SBC play, just 4.5 games behind West Division leader UALR.
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