Eastern Kentucky’s men’s basketball team appeared poised to snag a nice road win Wednesday night before Louisiana Lafayette turned up the heat after halftime.
The Colonels held multiple leads during a back-and-forth first period and took a 32-31 edge into the locker room against the Ragin’ Cajuns. But the home team caught fire out of the break, stringing together a 16-4 surge to seize control.
Behind the sharpshooting of Themus Fulks and Kobe Julien, Louisiana stretched its advantage to as many as 14 points late while handing EKU a 73-62 defeat.
“We competed hard, but just couldn’t string together enough stops there in the second half,” Colonels coach A.W. Hamilton said. “I loved our fight being the road team in this atmosphere though.”
After the game featured 12 lead changes and six ties through the opening 24 minutes, Devontae Blanton’s layup put Eastern Kentucky up 32-31 at the 16:55 mark of the second period.
But Julien responded with a jumper to ignite the Ragin’ Cajuns decisive run – one that saw Louisiana shoot a blistering 60% from the floor over the final 20 minutes. Fulks poured in a game-high 19 points, while Julien added 17.
Blanton paced EKU with 16 points and nine boards as one of few bright spots on a disappointing night. Isaiah Cozart managed 16 points as well, but the Colonels committed 19 turnovers and made just 29% of their 3-point tries.
Eastern Kentucky will now look to regroup Sunday evening during a holiday hoops clash with Northern Kentucky inside Alumni Coliseum at 4 p.m.
