Box Score

If there's any question about the impact of sophomore Anthony Gaines' impact on the Louisiana College Men's Basketball program, those questions have been answered in the last two home games.
 
For a second straight game, the Wildcats fought hard but came up short against one of the American Southwest Conference's elite teams. Some 36 hours after falling to second place Hardin-Simmons by four points, the Wildcats dropped a 72-67 decision to conference leader and No. 24 University of Texas-Dallas at H.O. West Fieldhouse.
 
The Wildcats have played both games without arguably their best player and leading scorer Gaines, who injured his knee Feb. 1 at Concordia, and has not played since.
 
"We played the top two teams in the league this week, and I can't ask any more of my guys than what they're giving us as far as effort," LC coach Gene Rushing said. "We're playing gutty, gutty basketball."
 
Unfortunately for LC, that effort alone has not been enough, and that was evident again Saturday. The Wildcats got 26 points in the second half from sophomore Kevin Lewis, who finished with 28 overall, but just 16 from the rest of their lineup.
 
"I just let the shots come to me," Lewis said. "I was attacking the goal a little more. The shots started to fall, so I kept shooting."
 
Lewis has had to assume the lead role of scorer with Gaines out of the lineup for an undetermined amount of time. In addition to that, Rushing has had to adjust both his lineup and substitution patterns – the impact of which showed up Saturday, especially in the second half. The Wildcats finished the game with just two points from their bench.
 
"It's been a whirlwind to get these guys ready for their new roles and new positions," Rushing said. "They're battling tremendously hard and playing with a lot of heart. You can't control injuries – that's just part of the game."
 
Two factors stopped LC in the second half of Saturday's game. The first was the Comets' 1-3-1 zone. With three 6-6 players manning the middle of that zone, the Wildcats found virtually no offense in the middle – scoring just 8 points in the paint in the second half. The only other two players to hit double figures for LC, sophomore point guard Kevin Cottonham with 13 and freshman forward Raheem Regis with 12, were limited to 5 and 4 points respectively in the second half.
 
In fact, in a nearly 10-minute stretch, no one other than Lewis scored at all. Lewis scored 13 during the span that came after the Wildcats had rallied from a 32-25 halftime deficit to take a 51-50 lead on a Cottonham jump shot with 11:08 left in the game. By the time freshman Steve Evans scored on a layup with 1:13 left, UT-D had taken control of the game, leading 70-66.
 
The other factor in the game was fouls. The Wildcats were called for 19 fouls to just 11 for Texas-Dallas. That translated into 26 free throw attempts for the Comets, who made 16, as compared to LC's 8-for-10.
 
"We couldn't get to the line," Rushing said. "They're such a good free throw shooting team, and we knew that going in. I sure would have liked to get to the line more than ten times."
 
For LC, the loss was their fifth straight and dropped their record to 9-8 in the ASC, 9-10 overall. The Wildcats, who were the second place team in the league for the first half of the season, now find themselves sitting in sixth place heading into their longest road trip of the season – Thursday in Apline, Texas against Sul Ross State and Saturday at Howard Payne in Seguin.
 
"All we can do is stay together, come to practice and get better," Rushing said. "This road trip coming up is a momma."
 
"We just have to keep playing like we're playing," Lewis said. "If we play like this game against the other teams, we know we can beat them."