NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana-Lafayette got just the look it wanted.

The Ragin’ Cajuns trailed South Alabama by one point and had just 1.8 seconds to run a play to try and extend their stay in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

Cedric Russell popped open just above the top of the key and Marcus Stroman threw him a strike on the in-bounds pass.

Russell patiently dribbled once, took one step to left and freed himself for an open 3-pointer.

“They executed it exactly the way you want to,” UL coach Bob Marlin said.

“Cedric is one of our best shooters,” Stroman said. “Everyone trusts him to take that shot.”

“I fell to my knees,” Jaguars coach Richie Riley said, “because I thought it was in.”

But it wasn’t.

The ball was on line, but it hit the back of the rim and kicked away from the basket and eighth-seeded South Alabama had a 70-69 second-round victory Thursday night at Lakefront Arena.

The Jaguars (17-16) advanced to play fourth-seeded Texas State in the quarterfinals Friday. The fifth-seeded Cajuns (19-13) will wait and see if there’s a post-season tournament in their future.

“They made shots and we missed them,” said Stroman, who had a tournament-record 13 assists.

In a game in which the lead changed hands 10 times, the score was tied for the seventh and final time after UL’s JaKeenan Gant made a layup to give him a game-high 26 points with 1:41 left.

Josh Ajayi, who led USA with 25 points, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:21 left after having made 7 of 8 free throws before that.

Gant was fouled with 1:03 left, but the 80 percent foul shooter missed both free throws, leaving the score tied.

The Cajuns got the ball back when Stroman made a steal, but P.J. Hardy missed a 3-pointer.

Ajayi rebounded and the Jaguars had a run-out, leading to Hardy fouling Rodrick Sikes with 4.6 seconds left. Sikes missed the first and made the second to break the tie.

USA, which lost to UL 88-84 on Jan. 24 in the Cajundome, won its second game in the tournament, having prevailed at home against Arkansas State 75-67, on Tuesday.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,” Riley said. “We have tried to learn how to win and our kids have not blinked all year long. There’s no way we win this game in December. This shows how much we’ve grown.”

The score was tied at 33 at halftime and Ajayi scored USA’s first seven points of the second half before Herb McGee’s 3-pointer gave the Jaguars a 43-39 lead.

UL scored the next nine points and USA scored the next seven.

After Jerekius Davis, who finished with 17 points for the Cajuns, made a 3-pointer, the Jaguars went on a 9-2 run for a 59-53 lead.

Gant made his third 3-pointer of the game in as many tries and followed with a three-point play to get UL within two.

Ajayi made four free throws and McGee made a 3-pointer to keep the Jaguars in the lead until Gant, who added a game-high 12 rebounds, tied it with his 11^th field goal in 19 attempts.

But the Cajuns wouldn’t score again even though Gant got two free throws and Russell beat the buzzer with his clean look.

When it was over, Gant walked slowly through the post-game handshake line, not knowing if his career was over.

Later he was asked what he was thinking of at the time.

“Both of those free throws,” he said.