GAME NOTES: The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns enjoy some home cooking, as they host the Evansville Purple Aces in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament at the Blackham Coliseum on Thursday night.

Since losing back-to-back games to UT-Arlington and ULM back in February, the Ragin' Cajuns have rattled off nine wins in 10 opportunities. The latest of those victories being a narrow 71-70 triumph over Sam Houston State on the road last week.

Meanwhile, the Purple Aces are a team that closed out the regular season with three straight defeats and then lost to Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. However, Evansville was selected to take part in the postseason and has thus far managed to defeat both IPFW (82-77) and Eastern Illinois (83-68) in the first two rounds of this event.

Evansville leads the all-time series by a 2-0 margin against the Ragin' Cajuns, with the most recent of those victories being a 93-74 final as part of the 1971 Division II Tournament semifinals, although the appearance by Louisiana was eventually vacated due to NCAA sanctions.

Due to scheduling conflicts at the Cajundome, this game is being played at the former home of the team, Blackham Coliseum. The last time the Cajuns used the facility was during the 2005-06 campaign when the Cajundome was being used as a refuge following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The winner of this game advances to the semifinals next Tuesday against an opponent to be determined, with the survivor there taking part in the title game a week from tonight.

In the 20th all-time meeting between Evansville and Eastern Illinois, Egidijus Mockevicius registered a massive double-double with 21 points and 16 rebounds, adding three blocked shots for good measure for the Purple Aces. D.J. Balentine led all scorers with 22 points, hitting half of his 18 field goal chances and 4-of-7 behind the 3-point line. Duane Gibson and Jaylon Brown both chipped in 10 points for the visitors as the team nailed 53.3 percent from the floor.

Balentine has been a constant fixture as a leading scorer for the Purple Aces, accounting for 19.5 ppg, thanks to his team-best 66 3-pointers. However, when compared to the rest of the nation and previous opponents in particular, Evansville is far from an aggressive perimeter team with an average of only slightly more than four triples per contest. Mockevicius, a 59.0 percent shooter from the field who has refrained from even attempting a single 3-point shot in 31 games, is averaging a double-double with 12.5 points and 10.0 rebounds per contest.

Needing a minor miracle to get past Sam Houston State, the Ragin' Cajuns turned to Jay Wright who connected on a 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left in regulation, just enough to push Louisiana over the top in the one-point decision. Wright ended up with a game-high 19 points for Louisiana, but none more important than his last. Also scoring in double figures were Shawn Long with 14 points, to go along with seven rebounds, followed by Devonta Walker and Kasey Shepherd with 13 and 11 points off the bench, respectively.

Long, who has been hitting his field goal attempts at a 54.0 percent clip, leads the Ragin' Cajuns not only in scoring with 16.2 ppg but also on the glass with 10.2 rpg, which should make for an interesting interior matchup with Mockevicius on Evansville's side. The performance by Wright in the last game was somewhat unexpected, given that the team's leading assist man (123) is still averaging just 9.2 ppg as he shoots 38.9 percent from the field.

The Ragin' Cajuns have been the hot team in this tandem and playing in the old haunts of Blackham Coliseum should provide a boost for a squad that barely squeaked by the last time out.