UM Falls to SunBelt Conference Champs UL Lafayette 110-65

Lafayette, La. - The UM Rams (8-3) find themselves on a two-game skid with a 110-65 loss to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (3-2). The reigning Sun Belt Conference champions used a 29-0 run in the second half to blow out 13th-ranked Mobile.

The Ragin' Cajuns didn't waste any time as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead before the
first media timeout at the 16:00 minute mark. The Rams struggled to defend against Louisiana Lafayette's offensive machine as the Ragin' Cajuns shot 53 percent on 18-of-34 while out-rebounding UM 22-15.

While ULL held as much as a twenty point lead, the Rams still kept things interesting as they used a 7-0 run to cut Louisiana's lead to 14 as they entered the half down 55-41.

"Once we settled down in the first half I felt that we did a pretty good job of executing,"Coach Niland said. "The difference was at the free throw line but we wanted to keep pressuring because that's the way we play against the people who we play at our level."

While the Ragin' Cajuns made 29 trips to the charity stripe it was a 29-0 run in the last ten minutes of the game that catapulted the game out of reach for the Rams.

"They have major athletes and we knew we were going to have to play really well to keep it close," Coach Niland said. "I think with ten minutes to go we started to really lose our wind."

While Mobile was permitted more time to rest than usual as there were media timeouts, defensively they struggled to get back and compete with the quicker Ragin' Cajuns.

"We can swarm over people at our level," Coach Niland said. "We were probably playing a little quicker than we should have but I didn't want to change our style of play because that doesn't do us any good when we go back to our level."

The University of Louisiana-Lafayette was led by Laurie Bridges' 21 points with Brian
Hamilton, Chris Cameron, and Brad Boyd each scoring 14.

The Rams were led by Tramaine Perry's 16 points, Jacob Louck's 12 and Randy Jordan's 10.

Mobile will have a week off until they hit the road on Dec. 27 for the Mesa State
University Shoot-Out in Grand Junction, Colorado. They will open up tournament play on Sunday, December 28, against Lee University.