Louisiana's Elfrid Payton and Youngstown State's Kendrick Perry Steal Monday Night

One of my daily routines is to check the mid-major TV slate to see if there are any games that might interest me in the evening. I often bug Ben Miraski via Google Talk and I'd classify our daily, on-going conversations as scary/comical. One day we'll release these conversations in our future New York Times bestseller "Working for the Weekend".

This morning two games stuck out Louisiana-Texas State and Youngstown State-Cleveland State. It wasn't really the teams that caught my attention, but rather the point guard prowess that would be displayed on ESPN3 from Youngstown State's Kendrick Perry and Louisiana's Elfrid Payton. I went against my normal routine and decided to flip back and forth between the two games.

Louisiana had no problems against Texas State in a 81-58 win for the Ragin' Cajuns. While the game didn't look like much on paper, Elfrid Payton certainly lived up to my Google Talk hype. Payton finished the night against the Bobcats with 21 points, 7 assists, and 6 steals. He continued to feed his beast Shawn Long, who finished the contest with 18 points and 9 board. Louisiana is now 11-5 on the year and 2-1 in Sun Belt play.

As good as Payton was tonight, it was Kendrick Perry who fulfilled my point guard fetish. Perry willed the Penguins to a 67-66 victory tonight with 31 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Perry scored the Penguins final 12 points including the game-winning free throw with 26 seconds left. In the final six minutes of action Perry outscored the Vikings 12-5.

Perry's heroics now have the Penguins at 11-8 this season and 2-2 in the Horizon League. YSU is the midst of a four game homestand.