the Cypress Lake Wire

by Jake Allelo

In their second home game in the new Quannas White-led era, the Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team lost against the Tulane University Green Wave, 66–62.

The loss comes off the back of a 9-for-30 3-point shooting performance for the Cajuns, and a 21–27 free throw shooting performance from the Green Wave.

An early three-pointer from Jaxon Olvera set the Cajuns up for a high-energy start; however, it did not last, as both teams entered a period of sustained missed shots.

Issues for the Cajuns showed their face in the form of poor paint and rim protection, as well as being outrebounded by the Green Wave. The Cajuns seemed determined to outdo Tulane on shooting behind the arc, but only making 30% hurt much more than it could help. Furthermore, while preventing the Green Wave from making three-pointers, the interior was left wide open.

No. 7 for Tulane, Rowan Brumbaugh, proved to be a large aggravation for the Cajuns, as his physical style of play made him a nuisance on defense and got him to the free-throw line on offense 8 times.

Towards the end of the first, fifth-year guard Milan Mejia made his 6-foot-3 presence felt, as he capped the half with crucial defense on 6-foot-10 Tulane center, Percy Daniels. The Cajuns overcame a 27-21 deficit with just around 3 minutes left in the half, bringing the score to 30-29, off a steal and layup from Mejia.

Going into the second half, the momentum was in favor of the Cajuns, and they had not held a lead since 16 minutes, 28 seconds into the first half.

The second half began with back-to-back three-pointers for the Cajuns, but with a domineering interior offense and rebounding effort, Tulane regained the lead with 11 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game.

The Green Wave pulled away with a short lead, despite the efforts of Mejia, whose long-range three-pointer brought the score to 46–49 with 8 minutes left. Unfortunately for Louisiana, consistent scoring from Tulane bolstered their lead, keeping the Cajuns a few steps behind at all times.

The final minutes of the game was an uneventful back-and-forth, only cementing Tulane’s lead and superior physicality over the Cajuns. A last-second three-pointer by Mejia brought the score to 62–66, with Tulane traveling back to New Orleans with another win under their belt.

Post game, Mejia reflected on stepping in for injured Cajuns’ point guard and team leader, Jamyron Keller, saying, “I just had to try and play as hard as I could… playing hard is a skill, and not everybody wants to do it, if I play harder than other people just to try and get position, that will put me in a position to be successful.”

Coach White reflected on his history of coaching against Tulane head coach Ron Hunter. “His zone [defense] is the same as the 6 years that I coached against him while I was at Houston,” he said. “That hasn’t changed. What we didn’t do was…we didn’t move the ball.”

He continued, “We just became stationary, even when we weren’t moving the ball, the guys with the ball were just standing around, instead of moving it. We’ll get that corrected.”