Wednesday January 22, 2020: Men's Basketball

Eunice, LA

Baton Rouge Bears opened LCCAC play tonight on the road versus the LSUE Bengals. Unfortunately, the Bears were ice cold from the perimeter while the Bengals were firing on all cylinders as they would defeat the Bears 86 to 62 tonight in the HPRE Center.

The game started out sluggish with both team trying to figure the other out. With 15:20 left to play the Bengals held a three-point lead; 13 to 10 over the Bears.  During the next five minutes the Bengals would take advantage of some turnovers by the Bears to go on a 14 to 4 run to take a 27 to 14 lead. The Bears would cut into the Bengals lead with a 13 to 5 run of their own to close the gap to five with 6:09 to play in the half.  The Bengals would close out the half on a 12 to 6 run to take a 44 to 33 halftime lead.

At the half, Head Coach Don Green encouraged his guys to continue going into the paint, which they found success in the first half.  In the second, half the Bears continued their struggles from the perimeter, but their inside game kept them in the ball game. Baton Rouge would get as close as seven points but that would be the closet they would get in the second half.

The Bears shot 33.3 % from the field and they were 0-14 from the three-point line.  The Bears also lost the turnover battle committing 24 compared to 10 by the Bengals.

The Bengals were led by Jonathan Cisse with 18 points. The Bears were led in scoring by Ronald Pugh II who had a game high 23 points

With the victory, LSUE improves to 13-4 and 1-0 in conference while Baton Rouge falls to 5-14 and 0-1 on the season.

Bears Highlights:

Ronald Pugh II led all Bears with 23 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists

Trenton Payne scored 14 points and grabbed 5 boards

Prince Campbell added 8 points and 8 rebounds

Javon Brazile scored 6 point, grabbed 6 boards, had 1 assist, 2 steals and 2 blocks

Spencer Mays added 4 points and 12 rebounds

The Bears will be back in action this Saturday January 25 as they continue conference play with a road trip to New Orleans to face the Delgado Dolphins at 4 pm in the Williamson Center.

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