LAFAYETTE – For the first time in 47 days, Louisiana dropped a game in its home arena after it fell to a hot-shooting Little Rock team, 59-44, on Saturday afternoon.
The loss was the Ragin’ Cajuns’ first of the year when holding its opponents to 59 points or less and their first loss at home in league play. Louisiana has now dropped five-straight games to Little Rock.
Nine different Ragin’ Cajuns recorded a bucket in the defeat, led by a nine-point performance by Andrea Cournoyer. It was the first time that Louisiana did not have a player score in double figures since Dec. 30, 2018, against Mississippi State.
Junior Ty’Reona Doucet led the way on the glass with nine of Louisiana’s 30 rebounds to go along with seven points.
Little Rock (9-11, 7-2 SBC) opened the game 10-for-10 from the floor to go ahead 23-10 with 1:11 on the clock before a quick 6-2 run by Louisiana in the remaining time capped by a buzzer-beating trey by Cournoyer cut the lead to 25-16 after the first quarter.
The Trojans responded with a 7-0 run to start the second stanza to go up 32-16 at the 6:50 mark. Louisiana answered with an 8-0 run of its own and pulled within 32-24 following a Kristen Daniels layup.
Trailing 35-26 at halftime, Louisiana kept Little Rock honest throughout the third quarter before two made free throws with less than a second on the clock from Nicole Hemphill extended the Trojans’ advantage to 50-33.
The visitors took their largest lead of the game with 8:56 to play in the fourth quarter when Kyra Collier scored two of her game-high 21 points in the paint. Louisiana fought hard over the next eight minutes before the game ended 59-44 following two made free throws from Jomyra Mathis.
Louisiana resumes play on Thursday, Feb. 6, when it travels to Mobile to take on South Alabama. Tipoff from the Mitchell Center is slated for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.
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