Bob Marlin had the right position identified Thursday night, but the Louisiana-Lafayette coach’s appraisal came in the wrong direction.
After the Denver Pioneers led wire-to-wire on the way to a 77-52 triumph, Marlin said his team couldn’t win with the kind of play he got from his post players, including starter Coleby Kadeem’s two points. Maybe Marlin should have said his team couldn’t win when DU’s post players played the way they did.
Pioneers forward Chris Udofia tormented the Ragin’ Cajuns (15-13, 9-5 Sun Belt) inside with 19 points and his teammate Justin Coughlin shot them down with 14 points, including four 3-pointers.
“It’s nice to get some points inside,” Udofia said. “Our offense was really working for us tonight. With one of us play outside, it really helped in getting different scoring options.”
Udofia and Coughlin complemented their different style of play to the point that the Pioneers (19-8, 9-5 SBC) used an easy victory to stay right in the middle of what is shaping up to be a thrilling finish in the conference race.
“There’s no such thing as slip-ups,” DU coach Joe Scott said of the remaining two games on the regular-season schedule. “Good teams know how to make slip-ups never occur. Tonight was huge. They’re a good team and they were a half-game ahead of us in the (West Division) standings. We have to put ourselves in the best we can come March.”
The Pioneers shot a healthy 59.2 percent from the floor, including 8-of-21 from 3-point range.
Scott was pleased with his team’s defense, which held the Cajuns to 34 percent shooting from the floor while sparking the offense at the other end.
Denver has a home games Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe and Feb. 26 against North Texas as the Pioneers try to position themselves for the conference tournament. The top priority is to finish among the top three teams overall in order to gain a first-round bye in the conference tournament, which begins March 3.
But before looking ahead, the Pioneers relished their play while improving their Magness Arena record to 12-2 this season. It was Scott’s 150th game as DU’s head coach.
The Pioneers put it away early, scoring the first nine points of the game and leading by as much as 24 points before leading 39-17 at halftime.
“The game was over in the first three or four minutes,” Marlin said. “DU was really good tonight. They got into a rhythm tonight offensively. We changed defenses and it didn’t matter.
Irv Moss: 303 954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
