COLUMBUS, Ohio – The ULM men's basketball program rounded out its 2013-14 non-conference schedule with a 71-31 defeat to No. 3 Ohio State on Friday evening at Value City Arena.
Senior Jayon James recorded a team-high seven points for ULM (3-5). He hit a pair of field goals and went three-for-three at the free throw line, all in the first half.
OSU (13-0) remained unbeaten on the season as LaQuinton Ross etched a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Lenzelle Smith Jr. posted a game-high 17 points, while Amedeo Della Valle registered 14 points.
The Buckeyes scored the first 12 points of the game before junior Tylor Ongwae got the Warhawks on the board with a lay-up. OSU went up 27-7 when James scored five consecutive points to make it a 27-12 game at the 6:43 mark in the first half.
On ULM's final possession of the half, senior Millaun Brown came down with an offensive rebound and went back up for the score. The Warhawks went into the intermission trailing 41-20.
Five different student-athletes scored for the Warhawks in the second half. Senior R.J. McCray and sophomores DeMondre Harvey and Daniel Grieves each hit a field goal, while juniors Chinedu Amajoyi and Leon Carswell II both went two-for-two at the free throw line.
Up next, the Warhawks will open Sun Belt Conference play against UL-Lafayette at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2014 at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
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NOTES
- In his first career action, junior Leon Carswell II hit a pair of free throws and grabbed two rebounds in five minutes
- Sophomore Colten Ponder played two minutes in the second half, his first appearance of the season
- ULM's 88.9 percent from the free throw line (eight-for-nine) was its highest this season. It last shot over 80 percent on Jan. 5, 2013 against North Texas (17-for-20)
- Six Warhawks played a career-high in minutes. In addition to Carswell II and Ponder, sophomore Daniel Grieves played 21 minutes, sophomore DeMondre Harvey played 19 minutes and juniors Evan Sims and Chinedu Amajoyi played 15 and 14, respectively. Amajoyi also grabbed a career-high five rebounds
- Harvey led the team in rebounding for the first time in his career. He pulled down six boards
- 14 student-athletes saw action for ULM, a season-high
- No ULM starter played in the second half
- The Warhawks did not have a double-figure scorer for the first time this season
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
On the starters not playing in the second half
“The story of the game was the first five minutes of the first half. We came out and didn't play hard. We weren't running down the floor hard. We didn't do anything that we worked on or talked about: shoot-around, the pre-game speech, the whole deal.”
“At the end of the day, the only way to make things happen is by playing hard. I'm about tired of it. It's been going on at certain times during different games. Sometimes it's at the start of the second half, sometimes at the start of the first half and I'm just tired of it. Those guys just aren't going to play. We're not in a good place right now obviously after the last two ball games, mentally or physically. This is why we have 13 guys though who can play and some of those guys played hard.”
On beginning conference play next weekend
“We'll work through this and we'll find some guys who want to play really, really hard. We'll find guys that do what we ask them to do, and those that do that will go up against UL-Lafayette next Saturday.”
