Cajuns fall in Sun Belt final

Published 10:45 pm Tuesday, March 8, 2022

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Greg Williams Jr. couldn’t look away.

The Louisiana junior guard sat inside Pensacola Bay Center’s media interview room. Williams was there to answer questions of course, which he did, but the television monitor mounted to the back of the room is what had his attention.

“Personally I can’t stop looking at the television because it hurts,” Williams said. “I don’t want to have that feeling.”

The images on the television were that of Georgia State celebrating its Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship, and automatic NCAA Tournament berth, won minutes earlier over Louisiana.

The No. 3 seed Panthers defeated the No. 8 Ragin’ Cajuns 80-71.

Williams’ teammate Jalen Dalcourt echoed his sentiment of the pain watching another team holding the championship trophy.

“This is not a good feeling at all,” Dalcourt said. “I think we know what we need to do to be successful. This little run definitely helped us see the light, so we’re definitely going to work hard this summer and this offseason, so we can get back to it.”

Louisiana led early on as Jordan Brown scored the team’s first five points but right after the All-SBC forward scored his second field goal, Georgia State answered with Corey Allen draining a three-pointer.

Brown would lead the Ragin’ Cajuns with 24 points.

Georgia State (18-12) maintained control for the next 10-plus minutes but Louisiana kept fighting back.

After Dalcourt made a layup, the Panthers’ lead was down to two points. Georgia State answered by going on a 11-3 run to push its lead to 10 points.

Dalcourt would again give the Ragin’ Cajuns another spark with a pair of three-pointers. The Panthers answered each one of Dalcourt’s threes with a three of their own.

Georgia State’s shooting from beyond the arc was problematic for Louisiana. The Panthers shot 67 percent (10-of-15) from three-point range, with Allen shooting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.

“He had a big game,” longtime Ragin’ Cajuns coach Bob Marlin said. “He’s an older guy. Their guys are all a lot older than our guys. They have experience and it showed.”

Louisiana (16-15) did trim the lead to six points with five minutes left before the break but Georgia State made two quick buckets to push the lead to 10 again.

At halftime, the Panthers held a 42-33 lead.

Georgia State kept its lead around double digits for most of the second half but Louisiana kept fighting back.

With 7:28 remaining, the Ragin’ Cajuns trailed 55-50. After Brown hit two free throws, the Panthers’ lead was down to 3 points.

“I was really proud of our team,” Marlin said. “We got it to a one-possession game with seven minutes to go. We guard them better in the second half – held them to eight field goals.”

After an empty trip down the court by Georgia State, Louisiana had a chance to tie the game but Michael Thomas’ three-pointer missed the mark.

The Panthers then scored five straight points and managed to keep the Ragin’ Cajuns at arm’s length the rest of the way.

Louisiana, who had reached its first SBC Tournament title game for the first time since 2014, came up just short of winning the title as the lowest seed ever.

No. 8 Louisiana had upset top seed Texas State and No. 4 Troy in the quarterfinals and semifinals to make it to the title game.

“Very proud,” said Marlin, who lost his mother on Saturday night. “We could have dropped our heads. A lot of people gave up on us, our fans, and we used that as motivation. We felt like we could get here and win this and I think we proved that we could.”

As for the two guards that were sitting next to Marlin, they may have been distracted by the Panthers’ celebration on TV but they were already ready to run it back next season.

“I was just real excited how hard we fought and how positive we were mentally and physically,” Dalcourt said. “I’m just excited to get ready to work next year.”

“I’m real proud,” said Williams, who was selected to the all-tournament team with Brown. “I’m glad to be a part of the family that we’ve built. I’m looking forward to the future. It’s a bad, but good feeling. I can’t wait until we start next year.”