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Second Half Rally Comes Up Just Short for Men?s Basketball Against Troy

Second Half Rally Comes Up Just Short for Men?s Basketball Against Troy

Men's Basketball Dec 31
MONROE, La. – Junior forward Tommie Sykes scored a career-best 23 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, but the ULM men's basketball team fell, 83-82, on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 31) at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

Senior guard Jarvis Hill scored 17 points, senior guard Tony Hooper scored 15 and junior forward Rudy Turner added 12 in the loss for the Warhawks.

Troy (7-6, 2-0 Sun Belt) led wire-to-wire, shooting 62.5 percent (35-of-56) from the field in the contest, and held a lead as large at 15, but ULM chipped away at the Trojan advantage and saw a potential game-winning shot fall just short at the buzzer. 

Troy jumped out to an early 22-7 lead in the opening six-and-a-half minutes of the contest. The Trojans made 9-of-10 shots in the early going, including 4-of-4 from beyond the three-point arc. All four of Troy's trifectas came from Brandon Hazzard.

ULM (5-9, 0-3 Sun Belt) worked the Troy lead down to seven, 22-15, with an 8-0 run ignited by four-straight points from Turner, freshman center Rory Burt and Sykes also made baskets during the stretch for the Warhawks.

Troy answered by pushing its lead back out to 15, 31-16, with eight minutes to play in the half courtesy of an old-fashioned three-point play by Vernon Taylor.

The Trojans took a 13-point lead into the intermission, 48-35. Hazzard scored 20 points in the first half on 7-of-12 shooting, including 6-of-8 from beyond the three-point line. As a team, the Trojans shot 61.3 percent (19-of-31) in the opening 20 minutes, 63.6 percent (7-of-11) from three-point range.

Sykes led ULM with nine points in the opening stanza, five coming from the free-throw line. Hooper added eight for the Warhawks before the intermission; ULM shot 37.5 percent (12-of-32) from the field in the first half.

The Warhawks started quickly in the second half, outscoring Troy 10-4 in the early going to cut the Trojans lead to single-digits, 54-45. Sykes capped the early burst for ULM with an old-fashioned three-point play.

Troy pushed its lead back out to as much as 14 before ULM cut the Trojans advantage to six, 70-64, with 9:51 remaining in the contest. Six-straight points by the Warhawks, culminated in a pair of free throws from Sykes, pulled ULM within a half-dozen.

A pair of free throws by Hill put the Warhawks within three, 83-80, with 1:42 to play. After a defensive stop, ULM had possession of the ball and called a timeout with 49 seconds left in the contest.

A triple try for ULM missed, but on the other end Troy missed the first free-throw of a one-and-one, giving ULM another chance down just three. Hill earned his way to the charity stripe and sank a pair to cut the Troy lead to just one, 83-82, with 27 seconds left. Another missed one-and-one opportunity by the Trojans gave ULM the chance to take its first lead of the night, but again the Warhawks came up empty on a three-point attempt.

With five seconds to play, Troy missed a third front-end of a one-and-one giving ULM an opportunity to race the length of the floor for the win but freshman guard Colby Carr's buzzer-beating attempt fell short as Troy hung on for the win.

Hazzard scored 30 points to lead the Trojans; Taylor added 16 including a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor.

The Warhawks will return to action on Saturday (Jan. 2) when they conclude their four-game home stand by hosting UALR at 4:30 p.m. The contest will be a doubleheader with the ULM women hosting UALR at 2 p.m.
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