Lafayette, La. - An 8-2 run midway through the fourth quarter gave the Ragin' Cajuns some separation, as they held off the ULM women's basketball team 52-45 Saturday at the Cajundome.

The Cajuns (5-11 overall, 3-2 Sun Belt Conference) held ULM (7-9, 1-4) to a season-low 28.1 percent shooting (18-of-64) from the field, and the Warhawks made just 2-of-24 3-pointers (8.3 percent).

"As I pointed out to them in the locker room, six-out-of-24 is a bad game from three," head coach Jeff Dow said. "You go two-out-of-24, that's going to make it tough. A lot of those were pretty good looks. But, we talked about this the other day, if you're not hitting threes, then how else are you going to impact the game? Are you going to go get a bunch of o-boards, find a way to get to the free throw line, or not turn it over, or whatever the case may be? That's what we want to see from our players."

The offense was a little better inside the arc, going 16-of-40 (40 percent). Arsula Clark and Diamond Brooks combined to hit 10-of-20 shots from the floor, all from two.
While the offense sputtered, the defense held its own, holding the Cajuns to 37.5 percent shooting and forcing 18 turnovers.

"It's hard to fault the effort defensively," Dow said. "We held them to 52 points on their home floor. They're typically much better than that. Still had a few breakdowns here and there. As we talked about, if you're going to struggle offensively, there's very little margin for error on the defensive side."

The Warhawks had a good start to the game, going on a 6-0 spurt midway through the first quarter on a bucket from Clark and four straight points from Tiara Malone to lead 10-4. ULM led 12-9 after a quarter.

The Cajuns scored nine of the first 12 points of the second quarter to claim an 18-15 advantage, but ULM had a 6-0 run with four points from Clark and two from Goins to take a 21-18 lead. However, the Cajuns used a bucket by Ty'reona Doucet off an inbound play and a 3-pointer by Brandi Williams with six seconds left in the half to take a 23-21 lead to the break.

The Cajuns never relinquished the lead in the second half, building three different nine-point leads. ULM would get as close as three twice. Diamond Brooks would hit a layup and a free throw to bring ULM within three at 32-29 before the Cajuns used an 8-2 spurt to lead 40-31 after three quarters.

ULM would cut the gap to three at 43-40 after a 3-point play by Clark and a jumper from Jamie Means. However, the Cajuns scored eight of the next 10 points to put the game away.

Clark tallied her third double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

"It was kind of getting to the point, in the second half when nobody else was making anything, I'm essentially going through the entire Rolodex of plays trying to get Sue a touch or Sue doing something going to the rim," Dow said. "Nobody else was making anything. She had a little bit of foul trouble in the first half. We survived that. We kind of gambled a little bit, I put her back in in the second quarter even though she had two fouls, and was able to get her out after she had that and-one. You've got to have more balance."

Brooks matched her season-high with seven points.

"We were trying to run some stuff for her as well," Dow said. "There were a couple of times we got it in to her and she ended up having to kick it out, maybe didn't feel comfortable going to the rim. Diamond is certainly capable of doing that."

The Cajuns were led by a double-double from Doucet with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Williams also had 12 points and Andrea Cournoyer chipped in 11.

The Warhawks continue their three-game road swing on Thursday at Troy with tip-off at 6 p.m. Visit ULMWarhawks.com for links to live video and audio streams, as well as live stats.