PENSACOLA, Fla. (3/6/24) – In a defensive slugfest Wednesday night inside the Pensacola Bay Center, the Arkansas State women’s basketball team dropped a 54-41 decision to Louisiana in the second round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

A-State (13-17) outscored the Cajuns (16-13) 18-12 in the final 10 minutes, but could not erase a 19-point deficit it faced after the third quarter.

Anna Griffin scored a game-high 15 points to lead the Red Wolves in scoring, while grabbing a team-leading seven rebounds. All 15 of Griffin’s points occurred in the final 20 minutes. Mailyn Wilkerson added nine on three perimeter buckets, while Crislyn Rose scored seven. The Red Wolves shot 30 percent from the floor, but hit at a 46.7-percent mark in the fourth.

Louisiana shot 38.3 percent from the floor and won the rebounding battle, 35-33. Tamera Johnson scored a team-leading 14 points with Brandi Williams supplying 10.

The Ragin’ Cajuns surged out to an early 10-2 lead midway through the opening quarter, but Wilkerson drained a deep trey to spark a 7-0 run that pulled A-State to within one. Wynter Rogers capped the scoring run with four consecutive points, but Louisiana ended the period on an 8-0 run to lead 18-9 after 10.

A-State upped the defensive disruption to open the second quarter, holding the Cajuns scoreless for nearly 7 minutes and pulling to within 18-16 with a 7-0 run. Louisiana would answer, however, with another quarter-ending run to own a 26-16 advantage at intermission.

Louisiana out-scored the Red Wolves 16-7 in the third quarter to expand its lead through 30 minutes to 42-23 after Williams sank a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

The Red Wolves clawed back to within 10 by way of a fierce charge to open the fourth quarter, but Louisiana answered to up its lead back to 15. A Griffin trey capped A-State’s scoring for the night, as A-State held the Cajuns without a field goal for the final 3 minutes, 22 seconds.