All season long, UL coach Quannas White has been telling anyone who would listen to practice patience.
The wisdom of those words is coming to fruition after another quality conference win Saturday with a 69-60 victory over Georgia Southern at the Cajundome.
“I thought we played a total game today,” White said. “I thought we were really good on defense. We were really connected.”
The Cajuns are 7-16 overall and 5-6 in league play, while the Eagles fall to 14-10 and 6-5. UL has won three of its last four games, with all three wins coming against teams above .500 in Sun Belt play.
“I’ve talked about player development, and these guys have been working so hard since June,” White said. “You know, it's just a matter of time. Guys go in slumps, but I never was worried.”
After struggling to shoot with any consistency early in the season, the Cajuns shot at least 50% from the field and 50% from 3-point land for the second straight game. The were 9 of 18 from 3-point range in both contests.
“That's great,” White said of the improved shooting. “That's just an example of all the work that we put in, but you’ve got to do more than one thing. You got to take care of the ball. You got to play hard on defense, and you’ve got to be connected.”
Just like Thursday’s win over Georgia State, the Cajuns enjoyed a balanced scoring effort with four players reaching double figures.
De’Vion Lavergne led the way with 17 points, two rebounds and two steals in 36 minutes. Dorian Finister’s impressive consistency continued with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, three assists and two steals.
But the two players that pushed UL over the top against Georgia Southern were Jaxon Olvera and Dariyus Woodson.
Olvera scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half while adding seven rebounds, two assists and two turnovers.
“It's just basketball, just trusting the basketball guys and just trusting God in general,” Olvera said. “It’s just staying in the gym, staying consistent and just trusting my work.”
His back-to-back baskets gave UL a 50-38 lead with 10:24 left, and his 3-pointer with five minutes left kept the Cajuns comfortable at 60-48.
“Then also out there just trying to make winning plays, not always just focus on trying to score — helping the team other ways when I'm not making shots,” Olvera said.
Olvera’s final bucket was a jumper on the left wing for a 62-54 lead with 2:36 left after Georgia Southern had trimmed UL’s lead to six.
For the second straight game, Woodson sank a pair of 3-pointers in the first half. He followed with a third long-range shot to cap a five-point run midway through the second half to respond to the Eagles cutting the Cajuns' edge to 43-38.
Woodson finished with 11 points and four rebounds.
White also was pleased with his team’s defensive effort, which limited Georgia Southern to 33.3% from 3-point land and 38.5% overall.
“Georgia Southern does a good job of playing fast,” White said. “They've got some talented guys, and they can score. We wanted to limit them and slow them down a little bit and take away the three.”
Next up for UL is a road trip to James Madison at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“I think we're starting to listen to our coach more,” Woodson said. “He's telling us all the right things, and now we're playing how he wants us to play with the effort, the physicality, crashing. I think it's all come together now.”