The Cajuns generally don’t lose at home and they knew they had their hands full with North Texas and Tony Mitchell. They started the game with three guards, used zone defense, planned to go inside, get rebounds, run the ball, go after Mitchell, it worked for the first few minutes of the game and the first few minutes of the second half.

The Cajuns got the first offensive rebound of the game resulting in the first two points of the game. They got the first foul resulting in them getting the first points from a free throw. They also got the first block of the game and the first turnover.  

UL-L went right after Mitchell and it worked. With less than two minutes gone he picked up his first foul. Quickly going to the basket and running the ball within the first 18:50 minutes of the game North Texas recorded three fouls.

Brandon Walton got North Texas’ first two points of the game making the score 2-5. Tyler Hall picked up his second foul at the 17 minute mark.

Mitchell was able to tie the score 7-7 on a free throw but with 14:55 left in the first half he picked up his second foul and found himself buried on the bench until half.

Walton got into foul trouble with two fouls.

The game seemed as if both teams seemed to be saying we don’t want this game you take it. Neither team seemed to play particularly well. While UL-L had the manpower in its favor, North Texas in foul trouble, two starters on the bench the best the Cajuns could do in the first half was to get a six point lead. They managed to get a game high ten point lead point lead late in the second half.

UL-L took their first six point lead 22-16 with less than six minutes left in the half.

Walton hit the first three point basket of the game for either team cutting the UL-L lead to 22-19.  After an over the back call on UL-L allowed Walton to hit two free throws closing the gap to 22-21.

Both teams played back and forth before Alonzo Edwards’ dunk with 24 seconds gave North Texas their first and only lead of the game at 27-26. However, seconds later UL-L ran the ball down the court to take a 28-27 halftime lead.

UL-L opened the second half with a dunk followed by a two point bucket to extend their lead. The Cajuns opened the second half like the first half going after Mitchell again. Once again it worked. With 18:39 left in the game Mitchell got his third foul. Then a few minutes later he picked up his fourth to visit the bench. He was there until about the eight minute mark.

North Texas continued to get into foul trouble which allowed UL-L to pull ahead by ten points. After Mitchell came back into the game North Texas was able to close to within four with about 3 minutes left.

UL-L tried to pull ahead but Mitchell got a defensive rebound which resulted in Walton hitting for two to close within two. UL-L pulled ahead a few second later by four before Franklin was fouled 55 seconds left. After hitting both free throws North Texas was down 64-62.

The Cajuns tried to pull ahead by four but with 16 seconds left they missed their shot which was almost grabbed by Mitchell but it went off him luckily it went to Holmen and with 11.6 seconds left in the game Head Coach Johnny Jones called timeout.

North Texas missed several shots but the ball simply would not fall and North Texas falls 62-64.

North Texas drops to 12-9, 5-3, UL-L improves to 11-11, 5-3.

Alzee Williams picked up a lot of slack in the game as he played forty minutes.

North Texas heads home to take on Arkansas State, noon, on Saturday.