Louisiana guard Kobe Julien (4) led the Ragin’ Cajuns with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting during Saturday’s game inside the Cajundome. The Ragin’ Cajuns lost 75-70 to the Tigers to drop their third straight game.

LAFAYETTE — No excuses were made.

After Saturday’s 75-70 loss to winless Jackson State, longtime Louisiana men’s basketball coach Bob Marlin could have used multiple excuses. There was the challenging road trip earlier in week which saw the Ragin’ Cajuns take multiple bus rides and flights to play at Indiana and Marshall, there was also the Thanksgiving holiday and the early tip of 11 a.m. inside the Cajundome.

Marlin wasn’t using any of them.

“I could give you about six excuses but I am not going to do that,” Marlin said. “Everybody plays Turkey Day or Turkey Week. You’ve got to come back and play after eating.

“There are no excuses,” Marlin added. “We got outplayed today. We didn’t play up to our standard and that is disappointing.”

The two teams traded buckets for the better part of the first eight minutes of play but then Jackson State (1-5) took control.

Tigers guard Ken Evans drained a three-pointer which sparked a 7-0 run but the Ragin’ Cajuns answered and took the lead on a Kobe Julien layup.

Julien, who came off the bench after going 1-of-16 in the past two games, led Louisiana with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting.

Jackson State responded with a 8-0 run and entered halftime with a 44-33 advantage.

The story of the first half were turnovers as the Ragin’ Cajuns committed 11 in the first half, and shot only 40.6 percent from the field.

“Before the game our goal was to have less than 12 and we had 11 in the first half,” Marlin said. “We took a little bit better care of in the second half. We can’t defend turnovers.

“In practice the past few days, the team turns it over then they are on the line and run every single time,” Marlin added. “I guess we’re not running enough. Maybe I will double them up next time.”

Making things worse was the fact that the Ragin’ Cajuns shot only 40.6 percent from the field, while the Tigers shot 55.6 percent.

“The first half we were a little sleepy out there,” said Jalen Dalcourt, who had nine points off the bench. “We didn’t play hard defensively. We were very lackadaisical. As soon as we woke up our defensive intensity got better, we started getting more stops and started finding the game.”

With 11:26 left in the second half, Jackson State pushed its lead to 14 after a Jayveous McKinnis turnaround jumper.

Louisiana cut it twice to 8 points, both times off Dalcourt 3-pointers, but each time Jackson State answered with a bucket to make it a double-digit lead.

After holding the Tigers without a field goal in the final 4:26, Louisiana (3-3) made it a two-point game with a driving layup by Greg Williams Jr. with 26 seconds left.

“It got us back in it,” Marlin on the second-half defense. “We were able to score and we had a couple of buckets taken off the scoreboard because of charges that were called. That really hurt at the time but we still had the presence to fight back and get us back to a two-point game.”

Jackson State held only a 72-70 lead but the Tigers made a pair of free throws to close out the win.

“I thought it was good but we need to play like the whole game,” Dalcourt said. “In order to be a great team, we’ve got to start strong in the first half and second half. We have to play together and play hard.”

After playing three games in seven days, Louisiana will not get back to action until Friday when it will host University of New Orleans. Marlin said the team’s focus this coming week will be like it always is — playing to the Ragin’ Cajun standard.

“The same as it always is,” Marlin said. “Value the basketball, get better defensively, play together and make sure we grow from this experience.”