ULM Warhawks

JONESBORO, Ark. – After trailing by 13 points at half, the ULM men's basketball program came all the way back to tie the game with 3:59 remaining, but a late run by Arkansas State gave it the final 64-58 edge Thursday at the Convocation Center.

Despite the outcome, ULM (9-16, 6-11 SBC) clinched a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Championships as Texas State (4-13 SBC) fell to South Alabama and Troy (5-12 SBC) lost to UT Arlington in double-overtime. The Warhawks currently sit in seventh-place in the standings.

Junior Marvin Williams registered a double-double for ULM with 11 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Junior Tylor Ongwae led the team in scoring with 14 points and also grabbed six rebounds.

ASU (18-11, 10-7 SBC) was led by Melvin Johnson III's 17 points and five rebounds. Ed Townsel pitched in with 13 points and Kendrick Washington put in 12 points.

Williams threw down a dunk on ULM's first possession of the game and a fast-break lay-in by James got the Warhawks out to an early 8-6 lead with 15:46 left in the first half. ASU responded with a 9-0 run to go up 15-8 with 11:04 remaining.

The Warhawks trailed 26-13 when senior R.J. McCray hit a three-pointer and converted on a runner in the lane to make it a 26-18 game, forcing ASU to call timeout with 3:27 to go. The Red Wolves bounced back and carried a 33-20 lead into the intermission after grabbing a basket on their final possession of the half.

ULM began the second half with consecutive baskets by Williams and Coppola to trim the deficit to 33-24.

At the 16:33 mark, sophomore Daniel Grieves cleanly boxed out a missed shot and a personal foul was called on ASU's Kirk Van Slyke for going over-the-back. After the play, arms were tangled and both players fell to the floor still trying to hold possession. A scrum broke out, resulting in a double technical foul. Van Slyke got up and made a stomping motion and was additionally dismissed from the contest. Ongwae made a free throw and followed it with a big dunk to make it a 35-27 game.

The Warhawks cut it to just a 37-35 deficit after back-to-back baskets by senior Jayon James, forcing ASU to call timeout with 13:43 left. The Red Wolves answered with a 6-0 run to go back up 43-35 with 12:03 remaining.

ULM trailed 46-41 with 5:57 and kept battling as Ongwae drilled a three-pointer to make it a two-point game. A long-range shot by freshman Nick Coppola levelled the game, 47-47, with 3:59 to go.

ASU went on a 7-0 run to spurt ahead 54-47, and was able to hang on despite a pair of late three-pointers by Grieves.

ULM will close out the regular season on the road against UALR at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Support the Warhawks through participating in the Athletic Foundation, you can join the ULMAF by calling 318-342-5415. Be sure to cheer on your Warhawks in person; to purchase tickets, please call 318-342-3ULM for visit the athletic ticket homepage.

NOTES
- Junior Tylor Ongwae has now tallied double-figures in scoring in 16 of 17 league contests. He has recorded double-digits in 22 of 25 games on the season. Ongwae led the team in scoring for the 15th game this year

- Junior Marvin Williams notched his second career double-double. He previously notched 13 points and 10 rebounds at Northwestern State on Nov. 21, 2013. Williams tallied his seventh double-figure scoring and second double-digit rebounding performance of the season. A set a career-high with 35 minutes played

- Senior Jayon James led the team in assists for the 17th time this season. He finished the game with seven points on three-for-three shooting

- Junior Chinedu Amajoyi matched his career-high with eight rebounds in a career-high 36 minutes

- ULM won the rebounding battle 39-35 and also held a 26-24 edge in the paint

- With one regular season game remaining, ULM has doubled both its overall and conference win totals from last season. The Warhawks have three more conference wins despite playing an 18-game schedule, compared to a 20-game slate last season. ULM was 4-23 overall and 3-17 in SBC play last year

- At the conference tournament, ULM will play either UALR, UT Arlington, UL-Lafayette or Arkansas State next Thursday in the first round, pending Saturday's results. The Warhawks would clinch the seventh-seed with either a win or a Troy loss

Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“This was a tough ball game. Both teams played very hard. Even though we didn't play well at times, we played hard. I'm really, really happy with my team. If we would have just made a couple of plays down the stretch like they did - that is how you win games. It was just a couple of possessions near the end that we came up empty-handed, and that was the difference in the game.”

On junior Marvin Williams
“He got a lot of tough rebounds. He had to play 35 minutes and defend against a tough player. Kendrick Washington on ASU is a big, physical player, and it was like a boxing match. Marvin fought really well.”

On sophomore Daniel Grieves
“Daniel did a good job. We played him at the four-position even though he is under-sized. We needed to try to stretch the ASU defense out so that Marvin could get open looks, and that's why we needed Daniel in there. We can't do it in every game, but it depends on match-ups with the other team. He sometimes has a hard time defending but he fought really hard as well. Once Van Slyke was out of the game it certainly helped.”

On making the conference tournament
“That was my number one goal before the season started. It's a step up from where we have been with our program. We played really hard tonight. I'm not happy that we lost but I'm happy with how we competed. Obviously ASU lost Van Slyke, but we lost Amos [Olatayo] who was our second-leading scorer and it's sometimes tough for us to score. We scored 58 points tonight and we were fighting hard. I'm very happy with our effort and that we are in the conference tournament. I'm glad that this group gets to go be a part of it because they have certainly shown enough effort both on and off the floor.”