LAFAYETTE, La. – Jay Wright tallied 20 points and four assists, and UL Lafayette shot 50 percent from 3-point range to post a 68-58 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball victory over Georgia Southern Saturday night in the Cajundome. Despite the loss, Georgia Southern is tied with Georgia State and UL Monroe for first place in the Sun Belt after the Warhawks lost at App State.

Jelani Hewitt tallied 17 points and seven rebounds to lead Georgia Southern (20-7, 13-5), and Curtis Diamond netted 14 points. Jake Allsmiller scored nine.

Wright was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc for UL Lafayette (17-12, 11-7), while Hayward Register nailed 4-of-7 from downtown and finished with 14 points. Shawn Long added 11 points and 12 rebounds.

The Eagles trailed by 11 points midway through the second half before Eric Ferguson put down an alley-oop dunk, and Hewitt added back-to-back buckets to cut the margin to 59-55 with 5:20 to go. Register hit a jumper for UL Lafayette, and neither team scored for the next two minutes until Allsmiller hit a triple from the corner to make the score 61-58 with 2:46 left.

The Eagles forced a turnover, but Hewitt's 3-point try to tie the game was off the mark. Kasey Shepherd knocked down a triple from the corner on the other end to make the margin 64-58 with 1:10 to play. Wright missed a free throw, leaving the door open, but the Eagles missed three 3-point tries in the last minute, and the Ragin' Cajuns went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the last 35 seconds to seal the win.

Leading by four points, the Ragin' Cajuns used an 11-4 run to take control of the contest.  Register got loose for two triples during the stretch, and a pull-up 3-pointer from the wing by Wright gave UL Lafayette a 55-44 advantage with 9:59 remaining.

The Ragin' Cajuns made 12-of-24 from 3-point range, while Georgia Southern went 7-of-25 from long distance and shot 26 percent from the field in the second half.

"Sometimes the other team plays well," said Georgia Southern coach Mark Byington. "They played well, and Lafayette deserves the credit for that. They are big team, a strong team and a deep team. We played really, really hard and fought through so many things in the first half with foul trouble all over the floor. I'm proud of the guys; they stayed the course, played as hard as they could and really went after it."

The Ragin' Cajuns jumped out to an 11-2 lead, capped by a Register 3-pointer, to start the game as Hewitt was whistled for two fouls in the first four minutes.

Down by 11 points, the Eagles went on a 17-5 run to take their first lead of the contest. A Diamond triple from the wing following an offensive board and kick-out from Angel Matias made the score 33-32 with 1:17 left in the first half. A Long putback dunk provided the final points of the period, and the Eagles trailed 34-33 at halftime.

The Eagles return to Statesboro for the home finale Thursday against UT Arlington at 7:30 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse. It's Senior Day and #PackHanner, and one lucky Georgia Southern student will win a big-screen TV.

"I really hope we have a great crowd and environment for our last home game Thursday and send the seniors out right," said Byington.

All-session ticket books to this year's Sun Belt Basketball Championships March 11-15, in New Orleans are available for $99 at the Georgia Southern Ticket Office. Call 1-800-GSU-WINS!

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, call 1-800-GSU-WINS or visit GSEagles.com.