TROY, Ala. ? Senior Jonas Brown scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Warhawks, but the ULM men's basketball team dug itself into too deep of a second half hole in falling at Troy 92-71 on Thursday night.
ULM (8-13, 2-7 Sun Belt) went punch-for-punch with the high-powered Trojans offense in the opening period, but struggled against the full court pressure to open the second half. Troy (10-11, 3-7 Sun Belt) pushed a 48-41 half time advantage above 15 points and never looked back.
The Warhawks would draw no closer than 21 points.
“In the beginning of the second half I thought we really lost our composure,” ULM head coach Orlando Early said. “We made some mistakes and they were able to capitalize on them with some big shots. We were never really able to recover from that.”
Brown scored a team-high 14 points in the opening period to help the Warhawks keep pace.
The Trojans blitzed ULM out of the intermission, forcing three turnovers and draining three treys in 40 seconds to expand a seven point advantage to a lead of 57-41 with 19:20 remaining. Troy would add 11 more points to start the half on a 20-2 run.
Just when the Warhawks felt like they started to creep back in the score column, the Trojans hit another trey to maintain their double-digit advantage.
Senior Lance Brasher finished as the lone other Warhawk in double-digits, scoring 11 and adding five steals. Sophomore Kenneth Averette finished with a career-high seven points and added six assists and one turnover while running the point.
For the Trojans, all five starters finished in double-figure scoring led by 19 points from Justin Jonus.
ULM returns to action on Saturday when it hosts league-leading South Alabama in a nationally televised ESPN2 game at 3:05 p.m. inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum. The game against the Jaguars will feature multiple great Chick-fil-A promotions.
