Following a huge home win against ULM, the Georgia Southern Eagles fell to the Louisiana Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns 87-85 in a close contest full of dynamic defense and physical play.

For the first 16 minutes of the game, GS kept a strong lead. A few offensive struggles led to Louisiana taking the lead and not giving it back until the last few minutes of play. JaKeenan Grant led the Cajuns with 22 points, which challenged both Tookie Brown and Quan Jackson’s 21 points.

Louisiana was tough on defense, forcing GS to settle for countless three pointers that resulted in falling behind. GS shot just 16.7 percent from the three during the first half compared to UL’s 46.7 percent from the line.

“We settled for three point jumpers too much,” Head Coach Mark Byington said. “We can’t accept things that we aren’t doing right going forward.”

This match continued the GS pattern of erasing significant point deficits during the second half and having to play catch up at the end of regulation. GS came out strong after halftime, going on a 13-2 run and eventually scoring 50 in the second half.

GS became sloppy during their comeback efforts with fouls, causing Louisiana to cash in on free throws and eventually bench Montae Glenn who ended with 10 points and 5 fouls.

GS is now 10-7 overall, and 2-2 in the Sun Belt. Though this was a tough loss, Coach Byington pointed out that they have very little time to practice and improve for the next set of challenging conference games. They will embark on an Alabama road trip to face a 9-7 Troy team and 9-8 South Alabama team who are both 2-2 in the conference as well.

Amanda Arnold, The George-Anne Sports Reporter, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu