Despite rough patches in the game, a balanced effort from
Western enabled them to hang on for a 73-68 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette tonight in Diddle Arena.

Five players scored in double-figures with three of them
grabbing five or more rebounds and two tacking on five assists each.

“Different guys stepped up,” head coach Ken McDonald said. “.
(junior guard) A.J. (Slaughter) got a little hot, (junior forward)
Jeremy (Evans) made some plays. I thought the guards really picked up, when (Louisiana-Lafayette’s) post players over-showed I thought the guards dumped down for some easy buckets. So I was very happy with the balance.”

Early on, the Toppers (13-6, 7-1 Sun Belt Conference East
Division) jumped on the Ragin’ Cajuns (6-12, 3-4 Sun Belt West
Division), getting out to a 18-8 lead with 13:50 left in the first
half. Sloppy ballhandling coupled with Louisiana-Lafayette’s ability to get out on their fast break brought the game closer.

Western was forced into 10 first half turnovers and despite shooting 56 percent and holding Louisiana-Lafayette to 37.5 percent, only an 8-2 Western run at the end of the half gave them a 39-32 lead at halftime.

“It was turnovers,” junior guard A.J. Slaughter said. “The
turnovers we were getting were leading to easy baskets. They were getting lay-ups off off silly turnovers. So that changed the game real quickly right there.”

A defensive adjustment at halftime allowed the Topper’s to
limit the Ragin’ Cajun offense to the half court game. Louisiana-
Lafayette recovered to close within three with under a minute left, but free throws from Slaughter and junior guard Anthony Sally sealed Western’s fourth straight victory.

Slaughter led Western with 17 points. Louisiana-Lafayette’s Chris Gradnigo led all scorers with 23 points.

Western now heads out on a two-game road trip, beginning at 8
p.m. Saturday at Denver.

Read more about Western’s win at the Herald’s sports blog:
chhtoppertalk.wordpress.com