BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns defeated the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, 84-63 Friday night in game one of the LSU Louisiana Basketball Classic being held this weekend in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Louisiana-Lafayette (1-0) was led offensively by junior guard Tiras Wade with 20 points. Wade added seven rebounds as well.
Four other Cajuns also scored in double figures. Senior guard Orien Greene came off the bench to score 18 points, including 3-of-5 from three-point range. Guard Dwayne Mitchell and forward Brian Hamilton both added 11 points, while junior forward Spencer Ford put up 10 points.
Louisiana Tech (0-1) was led by sophomore sensation Paul Millsap. The nation’s leading rebounder in 2003-04 got this year off to a good start, leading all scorers with 25 points and all rebounders with 14 boards for his first double-double of the season.
The Bulldogs had no one else in double-figures, as senior forward Wayne Powell came in off the bench to add nine points.
Tech struggled offensively from the field, hitting on just 1-of-12 three-pointers and shooting just 46 percent overall. Louisiana-Lafayette made 10-of-24 from behind-the-arc and shot 51 percent overall.
Louisiana Tech will play the loser of the LSU-Tulane game on Sunday, Nov. 21 at 12:30 p.m. UL-Lafayette will play the LSU-Tulane winner in the championship game of the 2004 LSU Louisiana Classic at 3 p.m. Sunday.