Ragin Cajuns Squeeze By Hurricanes, 66-60
Dec. 20, 1999
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Blaine Harmon hit two 3-pointers in the final4:07 and Louisiana-Lafayette came up with four big offensive rebounds over thefinal 1:28 in a 66-60 win over Miami on Monday in the opening round of the SanJuan Shootout at Mario Morales Coliseum.
The Ragin Cajuns (6-3) finished with a 47-28 rebound advantage as they wontheir third straight and will play Pepperdine, a 73-51 winner overDetroit-Mercy, in Tuesday’s semifinals.
Miami (4-4), which lost for the fourth time in five games, appeared to be incontrol when it took a 38-24 lead with 2:23 left in the first half.
But behind six points by Orlando Butler, the Ragin Cajuns closed the halfwith a 7-0 run and then opened the second half with a 6-0 burst to get within38-37.
As Miami struggled with its shooting, Louisiana-Lafayette took a 57-54 leadon a 3 by Harmon with 4:07 left. After a free throw by Miami’s Johnny Hemsley,Harmon nailed another 3-pointer with 2:49 left for a 60-56 lead.
Hemsley’s two free throws with 1:53 tied the game for the last time at60-60. Reggie DeGray of Louisiana-Lafayette was fouled with 1:28 left after hegrabbed the miss of a 3 by Harmon. He made the first free throws and teammateKendall Regis got the rebound of the second.
DeGray missed a 3 but Brett Smith of the Ragin Cajuns got that rebound andButler’s two free throws with 40 seconds left made it 63-60. Hemsley was calledfor an offensive foul with 16 seconds left. Smith was fouled with 11 secondsleft. He made the first and Butler got the rebound of the second and made twofree throws with 8.3 seconds left for the final margin.
DeGray, Harmon and Butler each had 15 points for Louisiana-Lafayette, whichwon despite committing 27 turnovers.
Hemsley had 19 points for the Hurricanes, who shot 33 percent for the game(18-for-54) and just 22 percent (7-for-32) in the second half. Hemsley finished5-of-21 from the field and that followed an 8-for-30 effort in Saturday’s lossto North Carolina.
