MONROE, La. – Junior Tylor Ongwae scored a game-high points and was one of three ULM student-athletes to reach double figures for the men's basketball program, but UT Arlington took a 85-74 decision on Thursday at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
Ongwae converted on seven field goals and went 9-for-11 from the free throw line for the Warhawks (7-12, 4-7 SBC). He also grabbed five rebounds and had a pair of steals.
Senior Jayon James tallied 16 points, six rebounds, six assists and a pair of steals. Freshman Nick Coppola registered 11 points and three assists in 40 minutes.
UTA (10-13, 5-6 SBC) was led by Lonnie McClanahan's 23 points. Brandon Edwards recorded 17 points, Reger Dowell notched 17 points and Jamel Outler had 10 points.
ULM held an early 13-11 advantage after a jumper by Ongwae at the 14:23 mark of the first half. After UTA tied it 19-19, a lay-in by sophomore DeMondre Harvey and a fast-break dunk by Ongwae got the Warhawks their biggest lead of the half at 23-19 at the 11:13 mark.
The Warhawks led 23-20 when the Mavs responded with a 6-0 run to go up 26-23 with 7:49 to go. ULM cut it to 33-31 with 2:52 left, but the Mavs ended the half on a 6-2 run to take a 39-33 lead into the break.
The Mavs pushed their lead up to 57-45 before ULM answered with back-to-back three-pointers by senior R.J. McCray and freshman Nick Coppola to make it a 57-51 game with 12:07 to go in the second half.
A long-range shot by Ongwae later cut the deficit to just 63-61 with 7:42 remaining. The Mavs then went on a 6-0 run and the Warhawks could not get the margin back down again.
The Warhawks will round out the weekend at Fant-Ewing Coliseum at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday when they host UALR.
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NOTES
- Junior Tylor Ongwae poured in his seventh 20-plus scoring game of the season and 17th double-figure scoring affair. Ongwae led the team in scoring for the 12th time this season and has reached double-figures in all 11 league games. His nine free throws matched a career-high
- Senior Jayon James recorded his 10th double-digit scoring game of the season and the 23rd of his career. It was the seventh time this season he had at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists in a game. He upped his season scoring average to 10.1 points per game
- Freshman Nick Coppola turned in his fifth double-figure scoring game of the year and was one point away from his career-high. His three long-range baskets were a career-best. It was his seventh 40-minute game of the season
- Sophomore DeMondre Harvey pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. It marked the third time this season he's led the team in rebounds
- The contest featured six ties and eight lead changes
- ULM moved to 46-14 all-time against UT Arlington and 28-4 at home. The Warhawks are 388-168 all-time in Fant-Ewing Coliseum
- With seven regular season games still remaining, ULM has already surpassed its win total by three games from last season and has topped its conference win total. ULM was 4-23 overall and 3-17 in SBC play last year
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
"(Lonnie McClanahan) is unbelievable. He's a lot like Payton at UL-Lafayette. He's a driver; everybody knows he's a driver. Everybody devises a defense to play his drives, and he still gets it done. What's amazing is he's only taken two three-point shots in conference play, and those were at the buzzer at the end of the shot clock where he just had to throw them up. He gets to the free throw line and he's shooting a great percentage from the field. He's shooting 80 percent from the free throw line. He's tough. He's hard to stop. We tried. We had a game plan to try to stop him and just couldn't do it."
On UTA's three-point shooting
"(They hit) some timely threes, and then when we did do a good job on the driving and the three point shot on a possession, we would give up an offensive rebound. We tried to guard them. They were better than us on that end tonight. That puts so much pressure on our offense that now we have to try to outscore them and we couldn't do that, as well. I give UTA a lot of credit tonight. They played well. Our guys tried real hard and had a couple of moments in this game where it could be just about right, but their guard play was absolutely terrific and it was tough on us."
On UTA playing zone and ULM's three-point shooting
"We tried to play a little zone, as well, and we gave up some offensive rebounds in that. You make them miss and give up the offensive rebound. They did play some zone, and we hit some droughts and it hurt us. We did try to get some guys off the bench to hit some shots for us, and we did hit some but then they became a liability on the defensive end and so it's a vicious cycle. We were searching down the bench and within the lineup up and down to try to find something that could stop them enough and at the same time, make us score enough to help ourselves and we just couldn't do it.”
