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Hooper?s Heroics Lift Men?s Basketball into Sun Belt Quarterfinals

Hooper?s Heroics Lift Men?s Basketball into Sun Belt Quarterfinals

Men's Basketball Mar 07
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Senior guard Tony Hooper scored a season-best 30 points, including a game-winning three-pointer with less than a second to play, as the ULM men's basketball team earned a 76-75 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday night (March 6) in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament.

Junior forward Tommie Sykes added 16 points and junior forward Rudy Turner had nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

ULM (12-18) led most of the way until Louisiana-Lafayette made a late run to take its first lead in the final three minutes, but the Warhawks didn't give up and when Hooper made the game's final basket, ULM earned its first Sun Belt Tournament victory since 2006-07.

The Warhawks led by six at the half, but Louisiana-Lafayette (13-18) cut the ULM lead to just three early in the second stanza before a 7-0 Warhawks run pushed the lead back to 10, 59-49, and forced a Ragin' Cajuns timeout with 14 minutes to play in the half. Following the timeout, Louisiana-Lafayette scored six-straight to cut the ULM lead back to just four.

After the Warhawks pushed their lead back to as much as eight, 68-60, the Ragin' Cajuns cut back into the lead, trimming it to three, 70-67, at the final media timeout as ULM struggled from the free-throw line. The Warhawks missed 10 free throws in the second half.

Coming out of the timeout, Louisiana-Lafayette scored six-straight to push its run to 13-2 and take a three-point lead, 73-70. Hooper then tied the game with a deep triple from the right side with 43 seconds to play.

On the next possession, Lamar Roberson knocked down a free-throw line jumper to give Louisiana-Lafayette back the advantage with less than 20 seconds remaining.  After ULM called a timeout, Hooper hit the decisive shot, burying his seventh triple of the night from deep along the sideline with 0.7 seconds to play. Louisiana-Lafayette saw its desperation heave stolen by Hooper and the Warhawks hung on for the win. 

Hooper finished the contest 7-of-12 from beyond the three-point line.

ULM took the advantage early in the contest as Hooper drained a pair of three-pointers to help the Warhawks build an early 10-4 lead. 

The advantage was pushed out to eight, 20-12, thanks to five-straight points by Hooper. The Houston-native drained his third trifecta of the half and then followed with a steal and jam to give ULM the eight-point cushion with 13:36 to play in the opening 20 minutes.

An old-fashioned three-point play by Sykes pushed the ULM lead to double-digits, 25-14, with 11:39 to play in the half, but Louisiana-Lafayette trimmed the Warhawks advantage back to just three, 32-29, with a 10-2 run.

ULM finished the first half with a burst to take a 49-43 lead into the intermission.

Hooper led all scorers at the break with 19 points, including 5-of-7 from beyond the three-point arc, Sykes added 13 for ULM. Tyren Johnson led Louisiana-Lafayette with 11 points in the opening half; Travis Bureau added 10 points for the Ragin' Cajuns. Bureau finished with 22 points to lead Louisiana-Lafayette.

With the victory, ULM advances to the Sun Belt Tournament Quarterfinals on Sunday (March 7), where they will meet second-seeded, Sun Belt West Division Champion North Texas. Game time against the Mean Green is scheduled for 8:45 p.m. and the contest will be played in the Summit Arena.

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