MONROE, La. --- The ULM women's basketball
team used a dominating defensive performance and a balanced offensive attack to
take control early and defeat Troy, 70-42, inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum in a
televised game Sunday afternoon.
The Warhawks (11-7, 4-3 Sun Belt) held the
Trojans to 26.8 percent shooting from the field in front of their largest home crowd
this season.
Troy opened the contest shooting 4-of-7 and
held an advantage of 12-10 with 13:21 remaining. From there the Warhawks would
lock down on defense. Troy would convert on only four of its next 34 shots
going deep into the second half and allow ULM to build a 20-point cushion.
The Trojans become the fifth opponent ULM has
held under 30 percent shooting from the field on the season.
Sannisha Williams recorded her second
double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds, and finished with a
career-high five steals and three blocks to set the defensive tone early. Lottie
Moore led all scorers with 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field
including 6-of-7 from the foul line.
Troy's (8-9, 3-4 Sun Belt) Donette McNair was
the lone player in double-figures with 10 points to accompany 11 rebounds, her
fifth double-double of the season.
“We played really well and we had a lot of animosity
towards Troy from last year's season-ending loss,” Moore said. “We were really
focused and our coaches put together a good game play for us to win.”
Kylie Morrisy, the Sun Belt's second leading
scorer and the player who knocked ULM out of the 2008 Sun Belt Conference Tournament
with her last second shot, was held to eight points on 2-of-12 shooting.
ULM used a 22-4 run towards the end of the
first half to build a 36-18 advantage going into the intermission and never
looked back.
The Warhawks blew the game wide open in the
second period with a four minute 10-2 scoring run to stretch its lead to 52-26
with 9:33 remaining. ULM controlled all statistical categories en route to claiming
its largest margin of victory over a league foe since joining the Sun Belt
Conference prior to the 2006-07 season.
ULM forced 24 Trojan turnovers and turned
them into 27 points. The Warhawks committed 15 turnovers that yielded only four
Troy points.
The win improves ULM to 2-0 in front of a
televised crowd with both of Williams' double-doubles coming in the Sun Belt Conference
Game of the Week.
“I hope these television games show the
public our style of play,” ULM head coach Mona Martin said. “We consistently play
eight to nine players every game and a televised game obviously helps us show that.
Today we came in with a game plan to shut down their inside play. I kept
telling the girls that they may not score every trip down the floor, but
continue to apply the pressure on defense.”
ULM fed off the intensity of its crowd while
turning up its defensive pressure to hold Troy scoreless for over nine minutes midway
through the first half to go along with a 13-0 run to push the lead to 27-14.
Ashley Wallis and Jesse Carrier added 10
points apiece, respectively, while all 13 Warhawks saw action in the contest
with nine scoring a bucket. The Warhawks finished by converting on 47.4 percent
of their shots in the contest.
ULM hits the road for a conference game and its
only game of the season in the Sunshine State against Florida Atlantic on Wednesday
at 6 p.m. CST inside the Tom Oxley Athletic Center.
