ULM Warhawks

ARLINGTON, Texas – The ULM men's basketball program came up just short in a back-and-forth battle against UT Arlington, 83-79 in overtime on Thursday at the College Park Center.

ULM (4-6, 1-1 SBC) trailed 70-69 when senior Jayon James converted a lay-up with 5.5 seconds left in regulation. UTA's (6-9, 1-2 SBC) Jamel Outler was fouled shooting a three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left, but missed the second and third free throws to send the game to overtime.

In overtime, James converted on another lay-up to put ULM up 76-73, but Outler and Shaq White-Miller hit back-to-back threes to put the Mavs back ahead, 79-76 with 1:22 remaining. After UTA went up by six, junior Tylor Ongwae hit a three-pointer but time ran out on the Warhawks.

The game featured 11 ties and 17 lead changes.

Ongwae led ULM with 25 points and eight rebounds, while senior Amos Olatayo registered 20 points and eight rebounds. James chipped in with 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting, nine assists and eight rebounds.

UTA was led by Lonnie McClanahan who had 25 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Jamel Outler and Brandon Edwards each hit five three-points to score 20 and 17, respectively.

The Mavs opened the scoring with a pair of three-pointers to go up 6-0, but the Warhawks came back to tie it, 11-11 on a long-range shot by Ongwae. ULM got out to a 20-15 lead after an offensive rebound and put-back by sophomore DeMondre Harvey, but called timeout when the Mavs tied it 20-20.

Still even at 25-25, Olatayo hit his third of four three-pointers of the game to put ULM back on top at the 6:01 mark, 28-25.

Still ahead 30-27, the Mavs went on an 8-0 run to take the lead, 35-30 with 1:40 remaining. ULM answered with a 4-0 run, but UTA's Edwards hit a three at the buzzer as the Mavs went into the break ahead 38-34.

The Warhawks came out of the intermission hot and took the lead, 42-41 on a lay-up by James, but UTA responded with a 9-0 spurt to go up 50-42 with 14:45 left. ULM came back and regained the lead, 53-52 after a transition lay-up by Ongwae at the 10:32 mark.

The back-and-forth battle continued and UTA wnet back ahead, 56-53 after creating turnovers and capitalizing with 7:44 left. Ongwae and Olatayo hit back-to-back three-pointers to put ULM up by three, but a banked three-pointer by Edwards levelled it again, 59-59 with 6:12 remaining.

Still tied at 67-67, Olatayo put in a lay-up to give the Warhawks the lead at the 1:09 mark. Outler came back for the Mavs and hit a three-pointer with 22 seconds left before James answered with a basket.

ULM will return home on Saturday for a 4:00 p.m. game against Texas State. The Warhawks are 3-0 at Fant-Ewing Coliseum this season where they have outscored the opposition 334-294.


NOTES
- ULM moved to 46-13 all-time against UT Arlington and 16-9 on the road

- For the first time in school history, the Warhawks opened league play with a pair of overtime games. They have not played consecutive overtime games since the 1988-89 season when they fell to North Texas on Dec. 1 and beat Stephen F. Austin on Dec. 6. ULM is 2-1 on the season in overtime contests and ULM head coach Keith Richard is 17-8 in his career

- The Warhawks outscored the Mavs 38-32 in the paint, 19-16 in second chance points and 8-6 on the fast break

- ULM's 10 three pointers (10-for-23) marked a season high, surpassing the seven that it made at Ole Miss

- The Warhawks had two players with at least 20 points in the same game for the first time this season

-  Junior Tylor Ongwae notched his eighth double-figure scoring game of the season and the third time he scored at least 20 points. He came two points shy of matching his career-high set in ULM's last game against UL-Lafayette

- Senior Amos Olatayo tallied his eighth double-figure scoring game of the season and 25th of his career. It was his third 20-plus performance his season and 12th of his career. His four three-pointers marked a career-high. He passed the 500-point milestone and now has 513 career points

- Senior Jayon James etched his sixth double-figure scoring game of the season and the 19th of his career. His nine assists marked a season-high. He has hit 13-of-17 field goals in ULM's two conference games

- With a three-pointer in the first half, sophomore Kyle Koszuta is shooting .600 (3-for-5) from beyond-the-arc in conference action

- The Warhawks are .500 in conference play after two games for the first time since 2008-09 when they fell to UL-Lafayette and then defeated New Orleans

- With 16 regular season games still remaining, the Warhawks have already matched their season win total from last season when they finished 4-23

Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening statement
“The game was won and lost on the boards. UTA had 17 offensive rebounds, and that's where the game was lost. No question about it. I'm really disappointed in that area because we just out-rebounded UL-Lafayette by 10 in our last game. We also lead the Sun Belt in rebounding margin and it's something we talked about before the game. Rebounding is a real strong point for our team and we needed to hold our will on the boards. It happened in the second half especially and on missed free throws, we weren't blocking them out. It cost us the game.”

On UTA's Lonnie McClanahan
“He's a driver. He's very quick and he's sort of an all-or-nothing driver where he puts his head down and forces the official to make a call. With all these new hand-checking rules and such, it's hard to deal with. Even when we had two people guarding him it was tough not to foul. Late in the game, he got around our bigs and it's something that we have to learn to defend against the whole game. It's tough. He had an excellent game and we knew all about him.”

On the team's effort
“Our guys played hard. I cannot fault their effort today at all. I told them though, you don't get a star by playing hard every night. Especially on the road, that's what you're supposed to do. You have to do something well to win. We didn't rebound and we made some poor decisions late.”

On not getting to the line
“Well, we don't have a striking guard who can get to the line off the dribble. UTA played zone, it was a 3-2 zone. Most of the game they dared us to shoot. We shot 23 three-pointers and some of them we needed to shoot. UTA backed up off us, and I wish we got to the line more but when a team packs it in and dares you to play on the perimeter it's hard to get to the free throw line. We shot 54 percent in the second half and held them to 36 percent.”

Closing statement
“We had some good stats, but the bad one is the 17 offensive rebounds. Like I told the team, playing hard is a minimum. We've done that two games in a row, which is encouraging, and if we do that then we'll be in a lot of close games. However, we have to do something well also, and we didn't get it done.”