ULM Warhawks

TROY, Ala. – Even at 34 at halftime, the ULM men's basketball program used a big second half to pull away and defeat Troy, 75-64 on Thursday evening at Trojan Arena.

Junior Tylor Ongwae led ULM (5-7, 2-2 SBC) with 22 points, including a seven-for-seven performance at the free throw line. He also grabbed a team-high five rebounds.

Senior Jayon James registered 13 points, five assists and four rebounds in 37 minutes, while freshman Nick Coppola played the full 40 minutes and scored 10 points. Senior Amos Olatayo aided the attack with 10 points and four rebounds, and all of his scoring came in the second half.

For Troy (7-10, 2-3 SBC) Jeff Mullahey and Hunter Williams recorded 16 points apiece and Antoine Myers had 13. Kevin Thomas pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

After Ongwae scored the first basket of the game, Troy went on an 8-0 run to go up 8-2 with 15:19 remaining in the first half. The Warhawks quickly levelled the score, 12-12, after Coppola hit a deep three-pointer as the shot clock expired with 12:30 left.

Coppola drilled another long-range shot to put ULM up 19-17 at the 7:56 mark. Troy leaped ahead 30-25 with 4:47 left, but five consecutive points by James evened the game at 30-30. The teams entered the half tied, 34-34.

ULM opened up a 46-41 lead in the second half after a lay-up by James and a three-pointer by Olatayo at the 14:11 mark. The Warhawks extended their lead to 53-46 after sophomore Daniel Grieves hit his third three-pointer of the game with 10:26 remaining.

The Trojans cut it to a four-point game when junior Chinedu Amajoyi hit a long-range shot to push ULM's lead back up to 57-50 at the 6:39 mark. The Warhawks kept pushing and got their lead up to double-digits with 1:38 left, and increased their lead to 73-61 after free throws by Olatayo.

The Warhawks converted on 11 of 12 free throws in the final 1:42 to secure the victory.

ULM will look to cap off an unbeaten weekend against South Alabama at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in a nationally televised game on the Sun Belt Network and ESPN3.


NOTES
- ULM hit its first five-three pointers of the game and finished at a season-high 64.3 percent (9-of-14). It was the first-time since Jan. 22, 2011 that it shot over 60 percent from long range. It also marked the first time this season that ULM made at least five consecutive three-point shots

- The Warhawks shot over 80 percent from the free throw line for the first time this season (14-for-17, .824). The last time they shot above 80 percent was on Jan. 5, 2013 against North Texas (17-for-20, .850)

- ULM's bench outscored Troy's 21-5

- Junior Tylor Ongwae etched his 10th double-figure scoring game of the season and has led the team in scoring in all four conference games. He increased his scoring average to 21.5 per game against league opponents. It was his fifth 20-plus scoring game of the year and his third in the last four games

- Freshman Nick Coppola matched his career-high with 10 points and became the first Warhawk this season to not come out of a game

- Senior Jayon James posted his seventh double-figure scoring game this season and the 20th of his career. He increased his field goal percentage to .697 in league play on six-of-eight shooting

- Senior Amos Olatayo etched his ninth double-digit scoring game of the year and the 26th of his career

- Sophomore Daniel Grieves went three-for-four from long-distance, making it the second time this season he's hit at least three 3FG

- Junor Chinedu Amajoyi and sophomore DeMondre Harvey both made their first career starts. Amajoyi posted five points, four rebounds and two assists in 29 minutes, while Harvey had four points, two rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 24 minutes

- The Warhawks won the turnover battle by a 12-8 margin

- The Warhawks have a .500 record in conference play after four games for the first time since 2006-07 when they started 4-0 and went on to win the SBC West Division title

- ULM improved to 4-0 this season when tied or leading at halftime

- The Warhawks have had at least four double-figure scorings in five games this season

- With the victory, ULM has surpassed its win total from last season when it finished 4-23. The Warhawks still have 14 regular season games remaining

Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“Great win on the road. In my opinion, this is the best win of the year. We played great and we looked well-organized. We played hard and made big plays in the second half, which is what you have to do to win on the road, and then knocked down free throws at the end.”

On the lineup
“This was a great team-win. Some of the guys came in and did a great job of competing and playing within the team-concept. Jayon James played really well. He gave us 37 minutes and played extremely well. Tylor played well in the first half and hit some free throws for us at the end, but Jayon played well the whole game. Amos came off the bench and hit some big shots for us after not scoring in the first half. He came off the bench and he didn't pout or go in the tank because he didn't start. We had 21 bench points, which we hadn't seen that in a long time. I'm really proud of our players for how they handled this week after our performance last Saturday. Nick Coppola also hit some big shots and made his free throws.”

On free throws
“It just shows how funny the game can be and also how our team is. We were 4-for-14 from the free throw line against Texas State, and today we were 14-for-17. I'm really proud of how these young men played today.”