Louisiana-Lafayette wins, coach sets Sun Belt wins mark

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Cedric Russell made coach Bobby Marliln's record-breaking win memorable scoring five points points in a game-closing 7-0 run that gave Louisiana a 76-74 win over Texas-Arlington on Monday night.

The win was the 118th in Sun Belt Conference games for Marlin, passing Kermit Davis. Davis, the current head coach at Mississippi, won 185 games at Middle Tennessee from 2002-2018 but the school moved from the Sun Belt to Conference USA after the 2012-13 season.

On Senior Night, Russell, a senior, scored 26 points, hitting 5-of-7 from 3-point range. His triple with 2:10 to play pulled the Ragin' Cajuns within 74-72. With just under a minute to go, Theo Akwumba's putback tied the game.

The Ragin' Cajuns then forced a shot clock violation thanks to a block by Mylik Wilson with 23 seconds to go. Russell was fouled with nine seconds left and hit what proved to be the winning free throws after the Mavericks missed their final shot.

Dou Gueye had 18 points and seven rebounds for Louisiana-Lafayette (15-7, 9-6 Sun Belt Conference). Isaiah Richards added eight rebounds. Wilson had eight rebounds.

Shahada Wells had 19 points for the Mavericks (11-12, 7-8). Sam Griffin added 16 points. Patrick Mwamba had 14 points and seven rebounds.

The Ragin’ Cajuns improve to 2-1 against the Mavericks on the season. In the most recent matchup, Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Texas-Arlington 68-51 on Jan. 16.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com