MONROE, La. – In the 120th meeting between the ULM men's basketball program and Northwestern State, the Warhawks built a 17-point lead in the first half and then had to overcome a late second half deficit in a thrilling 82-74 win on Tuesday at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
ULM (4-3) led 36-19 with 11:19 remaining in the first half and brought a 42-30 advantage into halftime before the Demons (3-5) came storming back. NSU cut the deficit to just 49-47 at the 13:54 mark and took the lead, 68-65 after a three-pointer by Zeek Woodley at the 5:45 mark.
The Warhawks answered with five consecutive points from junior Majok Deng to leap back in front, 72-68. After NSU brought the deficit back down to two points, Deng hit a huge three-pointer near the end of the shot clock to put ULM up for good with 1:13 remaining.
Senior Tylor Ongwae led ULM with a team-high 19 points and 10 rebounds. He was one assist shy of a triple-double with a career-high nine.
The Warhawks built their early lead after a huge first half from junior DeMondre Harvey. He finished with his first career double-double with career highs of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Harvey was a perfect six-for-six from the field and had 10 points and eight rebounds at halftime.
Deng ended with 14 points to match his career-high and also grabbed seven rebounds and swatted two blocks.
Junior Jamaal Samuel had a big second half and finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and a team-high three blocks. Sophomore Nick Coppola was the fifth Warhawk in double-figures with 13 points and six assists in 40 minutes.
It was the first time this season that ULM had five players in double-figure scoring.
Woodley posted a game-high 28 points for the Demons and Jalan West notched 21 points after converting five three-pointers. Devonte Hall also reached double-digits for NSU with 11 points off the bench.
The Demons led early in the first half, 13-11, when the Warhawks responded with a big 12-0 run to jump ahead, 23-13 forcing NSU to call timeout with 11:19 left. Ongwae had already reached double-figures in the game.
NSU came out of the intermission on fire and started a back-and-forth battle with 13:54 remaining in the contest. The game consisted of four ties and six lead changes. ULM scored the final six points of the game as Deng hit the big three-pointer and Ongwae drilled three free throws.
The Warhawks will step away from home this weekend with a trip to New Mexico at 7:00 p.m. (CT) on Saturday. ULM will return to Fant-Ewing Coliseum with 7:00 p.m. games against Central Baptist and LSU-Alexandria on Tuesday, Dec. 16 and Friday, Dec. 19, respectively.
NOTES
- It marked the second consecutive game where two ULM student-athletes recorded double-doubles in the same game. It was the fourth of Ongwae's career
- ULM improved to 3-0 at home for the first time since 2006-07 when it went 14-0. The Warhawks upped their all-time record at Fant-Ewing to 393-169
- The Warhawks are over .500 after seven games for the first time since 2004-05
- ULM improved to 72-48 all-time against Northwestern State and 40-20 at home
- The Warhawks are now 354-231 all-time against teams currently in the Southland Conference
- ULM entered the game leading the SBC in field goal percentage defense (.360) and held NSU to a .333 clip on 24-72 shooting. The Warhawks also increased their league leading averages with 20 assists and eight blocks in the contest
- Ongwae registered his 29th career double-figure scoring game and fourth career double-digit rebounding performance. It was also his fifth double-figure scoring game of the season. He went seven-for-eight from the free throw line; the seven makes were the most by a Warhawk in a game this season
- Harvey etched his second career double-digit scoring game and the first this season. It was his second consecutive start and he matched his career-high with 30 minutes played
- Coppola tallied his fourth double-figure scoring game of the year and the 13th of his career. It marked the second time this season and 11th time in his career that he played 40 minutes (or more)
- For the third time this season, Deng posted 14 points. It was his fourth double-figure scoring game of the year
- Samuel submitted his second double-figure scoring game of the season and third of his career. His seven rebounds were a season-high
- ULM dominated in the paint with a 52-14 advantage. The Warhawks also held a big 47-30 edge in rebounding
- It marked the third time this year that ULM shot over .500 from the field as it went 31-54 (.574). ULM is 3-0 in those games
- The Warhawks made 17 free throws in the game, a season-high (17-23, .739)
- ULM improved to 4-0 on the year when it has at least four double-digit scorers
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening statement
“Well it was a fun game, if you win. Both teams really played hard and with passion. There was a lot of scoring so it had to be a good game to watch.”
On DeMondre Harvey
“DeMondre was five-for-five in the first half and we needed some finishers. We played extremely well in the first half other than the last two or three minutes where we didn't close well. We had two or three chances for lay-ups at the bucket that we didn't convert. However, our bigs, especially DeMondre, were the recipients of some drop-it-down to them lay-ups and did an outstanding job.”
On Northwestern State
“Their guards are hard to guard. We won't see better guards come into the coliseum this year than West and Woodley. Those two guards are outstanding. Our zone in the first half maybe had them a little discombobulated and out of rhythm, but you can't hold those guys down for that long. They found the right spots of our zone early in the second half and then we had to go man, and they're tough to guard. That's why we were playing zone. Nevertheless, two guys can't beat a good team performance and I thought we had a good team performance.”
On the team's toughness
“Tough-man plays are something that we are trying to get better at. We went to the free throw line 23 times tonight and that's outstanding for us. We got 47 rebounds, 35 of them defensive which is also outstanding. You look at our rebounding numbers from Majok, Tylor and DeMondre and I'm really happy with those guys fighting in there. They're tall, but they're thin and they aren't the most physical guys, but they really battled.”
On Majok Deng
I've been really happy with Majok's play this year. He's only played seven Division I games now and he's gotten better as we play every practice and every game. His length really helped tonight and he made free throws.”
On New Mexico up next
“I haven't even thought about it. We are going there because I wanted to go to The Pit. I wanted to take the team somewhere with a lot of history. The Pit at New Mexico is one of the top-10 places in the country to play at historically. It will be a great experience for our players. We'll go over there with a smile on our face because of this win today.”
Closing statement
“I really want to just keep working on getting better and not getting too high or too low with each game. We're still very early in development, but this certainly was a step in the right direction. We beat a good team from the Southland Conference tonight.”
Quoting Junior Jamaal Samuel
On the team's plan coming into the game
“We payed a lot of attention to the scout that the coaches provided and we knew we were going to play against an up-and-down team. We just had to control the tempo, make good passes and finish at the rim.”
On whether the team thought they let it slip away in the second half after NSU took the lead
“No, never. NSU is a team that goes on a lot of runs but we knew that we just had to settle down and get to the rim. I knew throughout the game that we'd be fine.”
On the team having so many different weapons on offense
“It's really good because you know guys will sometimes have an off night. So we always need other guys to step up and play well. Our whole team is really developing and playing our roles really well. ”
Quoting Junior DeMondre Harvey
On his double-double
“I just started playing and doing the things that everybody told me I could do. I was able to get some easy buckets when the ball came my way tonight.”
On whether the team was over-confident at the half
“No, we knew NSU would come back with a run. They are quick and it's hard running with them all game. Coach got on us and told us to keep our heads up. We knew we had to come back with runs ourselves.”
On starting 3-0 at home
“It feels good and we're going to try and keep it going.”
