Louisiana cruises by Texas St. 80-54 into SBC semifinal

Mar 9, 2018, 10:09 pm

NEW ORLEANS -- Frank Bartley scored 23 points, Justin Miller added 14 off the bench and Louisiana-Lafayette cruised past Texas State 80-54 in the Sun Belt Conference quarterfinals on Friday, keeping its record-setting season alive.

Top-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette (27-5) will face no. 4 seed Texas-Arlington in a Saturday semifinal.

The Ragin' Cajuns pushed their school-record for wins to 27, continuing a pace that began in conference when they won a school-record 16 Sun Belt games, 15 by double digits, and earned top seed to the tournament for the first time since 2004.

Bartley knocked down five of Louisiana-Lafayette's 14 3-pointers and Miller drained four as Louisiana shot 53 percent from the field (31 of 59) and was 14 of 27 from distance (52 percent).

Miller, a starter last season, led a deep Cajuns bench, outscoring the Texas State bench 40-21. JaKeenan Gant, averaging 14.7 points per game, sat down due to illness after three minutes.

Nijal Pearson led the Bobcats (15-18) with 14 points.