Box Score LAFAYETTE, La. – Despite erasing an early double-digit deficit, Appalachian State University men's basketball was unable to complete the comeback in an 81-66 loss to Sun Belt Conference foe UL Lafayette on Thursday night at the Cajundome.

The Mountaineers (8-12, 5-6 Sun Belt) found themselves down 10 points (17-7) just over five minutes into the game and could never fully recover as the Ragin' Cajuns (13-10, 7-5) completed the season sweep of App State.

UL Lafayette raced out to a quick 6-0 lead in the first two minutes of action and never trailed en route to its second-straight victory. Frank Eaves cut the deficit in half when he got the Mountaineers on the board with a three-pointer at the 17:27 mark, but the Apps could never climb out of the early hole.

The Ragin' Cajuns grabbed their first double-digit (17-7) lead on a pair of free throws from Shawn Long with 14:36 to play. The free throws were part of an 8-2 run that saw UL Lafayette increase its lead to 11 points (20-9) with just under seven minutes gone in the opening period.

Appalachian State was able to close the gap to eight points twice in the next minute of play, but UL Lafayette kept its foot on the gas and eventually stretched the lead to 12 points (27-15) with 11:10 on the clock.

Trailing by nine (31-22) with 7:56 remaining, the Mountaineers were able to reel off a 5-1 run to cut the deficit to just five points (32-27) on a Jake Babic three-pointer with 6:54 to go, but back-to-back dunks by the Long and teammate Brian Williams stopped Appalachian's momentum and pushed the Ragin' Cajuns' lead back to seven (36-29) at the 5:25 mark.

The Mountaineers were able to cut the deficit to five points (36-31) when Tommy Spagnolo  connected on a layup with 4:49 left, but UL Lafayette ended the opening period on a 12-5 run and took a 48-41 lead into the locker room.

Appalachian roared out of the gate in the second half, scoring six unanswered points to force a Cajun timeout after cutting the deficit to one point (48-47) with 18:07 on the clock. Eaves got the run started on the Mountaineers' opening possession of the half and Chris Burgess nailed two-straight shots to bring the Apps within a single point.

Nearly two minutes later, Burgess drilled a shot from beyond the arc to tie the game at 50-50 with 16:21 to play, marking the first tie since the opening tip of the contest.

UL Lafayette was able to stem the tide by scoring nine of the next 11 points to grab a 59-52 lead with just over 11 minutes to play and regain the momentum. It would be just the spark that the Ragin' Cajuns would need to finally put the game away for good as they pushed their lead to 12 points (69-57) on another Williams' dunk with 6:51 to play.

Babic finished with a career-high 16 points while Eaves also poured in 16 and grabbed seven rebounds. Jacob Lawson also scored a career-best 10 points, ripped down six boards and tallied three blocks. Burgess added 14 points and six rebounds while Spagnolo scored 10 and ripped down eight boards.

Long led all players with 22 points and 14 rebounds while Register Hayward went off for 20 and Williams scored 10 off the bench for the Ragin' Cajuns. The Mountaineers shot just 39.1 percent (25-of-64) for the game while UL Lafayette connected at a clip of 49.1 percent (28-of-57) and pulled down 39 rebounds to Appalachian's 32.

The Mountaineers return home on Saturday when they square off against Troy for the second time this year. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. from the Holmes Center.

NOTES: Appalachian State fell to 0-4 all-time against UL Lafayette ... the Mountaineers also dropped to 18-19 all-time when facing Sun Belt foes away from Boone ... the App State bench finished with 26 points - its 10th game this season with at least 20 points ... it marked the seventh time in conference play that the bench poured in more than 20 ... the game marked the 16th time this season that Eaves has led the Mountaineers in scoring ... UL Lafayette's Long scored his 1,500th career point on a free throw with 7:56 in the first half ... he is the 13th player in Ragin' Cajun history to surpass 1,500 points in a career ... UL Lafayette led for 37:21 of a possible 40 minutes .. the Ragin' Cajuns 48 first-half points tied for the most by an opponent this season ... South Alabama also scored 48 in the opening half of Appalachian's 104-95 loss on Jan. 8.