Jan. 26, 2002

Box Score

LAFAYETTE, La. - Despite a career-high 20 points on 6-of-6 shooting from freshman guard Erik Benzel (Spokane, Wash. / Ferris HS) behind the arc, the University of Denver men's basketball team gave up a 15-point lead on the road in dropping a 70-58 decision to Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.

7-foot freshman center Michael Southall had 19 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks to help ULL (11-7, 5-2 Sun Belt) retain its lead in the SBC West Division. Senior forward Wahhab Carter (El Reno, Okla. / El Reno HS) added 14 points, and sophomore forward Brett Starkey (Lakewood, Colo. / Green Mountain HS) had 10 rebounds for the Pioneers (5-14, 1-7).

Denver took a 6-1 lead on three quick baskets from Carter. A few minutes later, Carter fed Starkey for an easy layup to go up 12-5. Starkey then made an athletic one-handed half-hook tip-in of a Carter miss, and after a wild miss by the Cajuns, freshman Erik Benzel (Spokane, Wash. / Ferris HS) canned back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers over a span of 1 minute, 7 seconds to give the Pioneers a commanding 27-12 lead with 10:07 left.

At that point in the game, the Pioneers were shooting a solid 55 percent compared to ULL's 27.3 mark, yet the tables turned completely in a tale of two first halves. The Cajuns came back to shoot 50 percent, out-rebound the Pioneers 8-7 and force 10 Denver turnovers down the stretch to go on a 21-2 run. That gave Louisiana-Lafayette a 33-29 lead going into the locker room. Denver finished the half with 12 turnovers, which was just under their season game average of 12.2 a game. The Pioneers finished the game with 22 miscues on the night, one off their season high, resulting in 26 Lafayette points off turnovers.

Louisiana-Lafayette opened the second half with the same fire that they closed the first, going on a mammoth 34-4 run spanning a 15:39 time frame over both stanzas to take a 46-31 lead. Although the Pioneers would close that gap to eight at 53-45 with 7:52 left on Benzel's fifth 3-pointer, ULL would keep the game out of reach by going 15-of-19 from the free-throw line down the stretch while making just three field goals in the last 12 minutes. In all, the Ragin' Cajuns were 24-of-34 from the line, while Denver made 11 of only 16 attempts.

"For whatever reason, we went into another lapse of time that cost us the ballgame," said head coach Terry Carroll. "I can't explain how a team can go from playing the way we did, and executing exactly the way we needed to, to having a complete breakdown in a matter of seconds. It wasn't just one guy - there were a lot of people that didn't do their job tonight. We practiced hard at the things we needed to do, and we played outstanding basketball for 30 or 32 minutes. But then we started doing things that we simply don't do in practice, and that cost us."

The Pioneers have the next seven days off before returning to the road next Saturday, Feb. 2, for a Sun Belt Conference game at North Texas. Tipoff in Denton, Texas, is at 7 p.m. CST.