UL's second attempt at its first victory of the season was seven points closer on the scoreboard, but not in execution level.

However you look at it, the Ragin' Cajuns are 0-2 after a 67-60 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday in the Cajundome.

"Extremely frustrated with the way our entire team played, but that's on me and my staff," UL coach Quannas White said. "Very disappointed, extremely, extremely disappointed. I feel bad for the Cajun fans to have to come and watch that, because that's not what I'm about. It's never been, but we'll get it corrected."

The Cajuns went almost 11 minutes without a field goal in the middle of the second half. As a result, UL was shooting 17% in the second half until De'Vion Lavergne got off the schneid for the season by a hitting a trio of 3s in the final 59 seconds of play.

In the opening loss to Akron, which was coming off a 29-win season, the Cajuns only turned it over seven times. Against Islanders team coming off an 18-15 season, UL committed its seventh turnover with eight minutes still left in the first half and the eighth one came a few minutes later.

That part got better in the second half, finishing with 11 turnovers while forcing 17 from the visitors.

The lack of toughness on defense and on the 50-50 balls was evident throughout the game.

"That's ultimately my fault," White said. "I am the head, and I'm fine with it. Actually, this motivates me more than anything." 


The problem was shooting. UL only shot 31.3% from the field after only making 25.9% of its shots in the second half.

"It's a long season," White added. "You going to have some turbulence. You're going to have some ups and downs. But if you stick with it and you stay committed, then you'll get it corrected, and then things will begin to change. 
And so things will change. I'm confident in that.

"We've got a good group of kids in there. All of them are hurting, but it's not just enough to be hurt. You've got to make changes."

Once again, the scoring wasn't balanced at all.

Jamyron Keller led the way for the second straight game with 19 points on 5-of-12 shooting and Mekhi Cooper added 17 points on 9-of-10 shooting at the free throw line.

Until the final minute of the game, no other Cajuns had more than six points. That was Dani Pounds, who finished with six on 1-of-9 shooting from the field and four rebounds.

"I'm not worried about that (balanced scoring) as much as people may think," White said. "What I'm more worried about in these last two games that we played is our guys not doing what I expect them to do. You know, I'm all about toughness, man .. And we got out-toughed, so I'm worried about our guys not being tough out there and competing on the floor."

Trent Middleton, who scored 14 points in the opener, was limited to five minutes, before leaving the game with a concussion.

Lavergne scored those nine points in 34 minutes, along with three rebounds, an assist and two steals.

After not leading at all in the opening loss, the Cajuns did lead a few times in the opening minutes, but their final lead of the game was 6-5 with 17:25 left in the first half.

After the Islanders built up a 30-16 lead after a Isaiah Lewis 3-pointer with 7:31 left in the first half, the Cajuns trimmed that lead to six twice in the first half and then again one more time with 18 seconds during mop-up time.

The other big concern in the game was Texas A&M-Corpus Christi outrebounded the Cajuns 40-22 in the game. No Cajun player had more than four rebounds in the game.

"The rebounding is one thing, but the loose balls ... I felt like they got all of them," White said. "It's not just the rebounding. That's one thing and huge, because if you can't control the glass, it's going to be very hard for you to win. it's just not good. That's not how you win ball games. So they beat us in every toughness category. And that's everything that I'm against."

The Islanders' bench outscored UL 31-11 and 26-16 in the paint.

The only area the Cajuns did fare well was at the free throw line, shooting 82.1% largely because Cooper and Keller combined for 16-of-18 shooting at the line.

Cooper was the only Cajun to make more field goals than he attempted in the game.

With the three late 3s, UL actually made two more 3s than the Islanders, who finished with five on 13 attempts. The Islanders shot 46.5% as a team on the night.

Bineal Basil led the way with 14 points and six rebounds, followed by Daniel Michelini-Jackson with 12 points and four rebounds and Desmond Kent with 10 points and four boards.

"I'm glad we're going through this to be honest with you," White added. "I'm glad we're facing some real adversity, especially for what my goals are for this team. This is real adversity. Right now, no one thinks that you're going to be any good, and that ain't a bad thing."