Mountaineers Drop Road Tilt at Louisiana

LAFAYETTE, La. -- The Appalachian State men's basketball team dropped a 78-45 Sun Belt decision on the road at Louisiana on Thursday evening inside the Cajundome.

Freshman Justin Forrest (Decatur, Ga./Greenforest McCalep Christian Academy) paced the Mountaineers (7-9, 2-1 SBC) with a team-high 12 points and a team-high tying six rebounds.

Junior Tyrell Johnson (Atlanta, Ga./Stephenson) added nine points, four rebounds and three blocks.

Frank Bartley paced the Ragin' Cajuns (13-3, 3-0 SBC) with a game-high 16 points. Bryce Washington posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Malik Marquetti chipped in with 10 points.

Louisiana opened the game scoring the first five points, before App State responded with nine of the next 10 points to build a 9-6 lead in the early going.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns answered with a 9-0 run to open up a 15-9 lead.
 
With Louisiana leading 19-15, the Ragin' Cajuns used a 19-0 run to take control of the game and open up a 23-point lead at 38-15 with 3:39 remaining in the frame.
 
After a basket by Forrest, Louisiana scored the final nine points of the half to take a 46-17 lead into the locker room.
 
In the second half, the Black and Gold would trim the Cajuns lead to 27 points, but could get no closer.
 
The Apps shot 19-of-55 (34.5 percent) from the field and struggled on three-pointers, going 3-of-19 (15.8 percent). Louisiana went 29-of-66 (43.9 percent) in shooting and went 8-of-25 (32.0 percent) from deep.

The Mountaineers will be right back at it on Saturday, as they close out their two-game road swing through Louisiana by taking on UL Monroe at 3 p.m. EST.