NATCHITOCHES – A wire-to-wire victory resulted in an 80-64 final for the ULM men's basketball program over Northwestern State as Keith Richard won his 200th career game as a head coach on Thursday at Prather Coliseum.
The Warhawks (2-1) dominated the glass as they outrebounded the Demons (0-3) 49-27 in the game. ULM grabbed 23 offensive rebounds compared to NSU's eight and held huge advantages of 46-20 in points in the paint and 25-9 in second chance points.
Senior Majok Deng and freshman Travis Munnings both posted double-doubles in the game. Deng finished with a team-high of 19 points and 12 rebounds while Munnings set new career-highs of 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Deng and Munnings were two of five double-figure scorers for the Warhawks. Senior Jamaal Samuel poured in 15 points and seniors Justin Roberson and DeMondre Harvey tallied 11 apiece. Harvey also grabbed nine rebounds while Roberson pulled down seven to go along with his six assists and career-high five steals.
ULM scored the first six points of the game to get up early. Leading 10-4, Roberson found the hot hand with four consecutive baskets to headline a 15-1 run and give the Warhawks a 25-11 advantage with 11:54 remaining.
Still up 26-13, the Demons went on a 6-0 run to get back in it, 28-19, and further cut into the deficit to make it a 33-25 game with 5:20 left. It was the last time ULM's lead was in single-figures as it quickly answered with a 9-0 run, capped by a lay-up by Munnings, to push its lead back up to 42-25 at the 2:41 mark.
The Warhawks carried a 46-32 lead into the intermission after outrebounding the Demons, 28-15 in the half.
ULM kept it going early in the second half a built a 59-37 lead after an inside bucket by Munnings with 14:17 to go. The team's biggest lead of the game was 70-42 after a put-back by Harvey with 8:25 remaining.
The Demons, who were picked to finish second in the Southland Conference Preseason Poll, were led by Zeek Woodley's 24 points. Ishmael Lane pitched in with 14 points and Sabri Thompson had 12 points off the bench.
The Warhawks will have a nine-day layoff before returning to the court on Saturday, Nov. 28 at Houston. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN3 and can also be heard live via radio on KLIP LA 105.3 FM with Nick White on play-by-play. Follow the ULM men's basketball program on Twitter, @ULM_MBB, for live in-game updates.
NOTES
- ULM remained as one of two teams in the nation to not allow 75 points in a single over the last two seasons (along with Baylor). ULM's streak is now at 47 games
- The Warhawks defeated the Demons for the third consecutive year and improved to 73-48 all-time against NSU and 29-27 on the road. ULM has played NSU more times than any other school in history
- ULM improved to 355-231 against teams currently in the Southland Conference. The Warhawks were an SLC member from 1982-2006
- The Warhawks are now 2-1 for the third consecutive year. ULM had not previously gotten off to three consecutive 2-1 starts since 1983-84, 84-85, 85-86
- The game was a homecoming for Roberson who is from Natchitoches. He registered his 17th career double-figure scoring game and second this season. Roberson has had at least two steals in every game this year and is averaging 3.7 per outing
- Roberson became the first Warhawks to record five steals in a game since Tylor Ongwae did it on Feb. 15, 2014 against Little Rock
- Deng recorded his 11th consecutive double-figure scoring games dating back to last season and it was his 28th of his career. He etched his ninth career double-double and ninth career double-digit rebounding game
- Samuel posted his second consecutive double-figure scoring game and the 10th of his career
- Munnings notched his first career double-double, second straight double-digit scoring game. He broke his previous career-highs of 12 points and nine rebounds set at Minnesota
- Junior Nick Coppola finished second in the conference last season in both assists and assist:turnover ratio. He dished out five assists with just one turnover (on an offensive foul)
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“This was a good win for us. This is a tough place to play regardless of the circumstances. I've been here as a player, assistant coach and head coach – it's a tough place to play and I'm very proud of our team.”
On ULM's balanced scoring attack
“We had a lot of guys play pretty well. Our game plan was to really use our length, height and our aggression toward the rim. We shot 50 percent in the first half, 43 percent in the second and 47 percent for the game. There were a lot of plays at the rim for us and so I'm really proud of our players for following the plan. We had a height advantage and we used it. We had a lot of lay-ups. We had 23 offensive rebounds. So I'm really happy that the players were able to hear a game-plan offensively and go out and execute it. It brings credibility to the next game and so on.”
On Travis Munnings
“He had some turnovers that he's got to clean up as a freshman, and he had some at Minnesota as well. Those are freshman-type turnovers, but the rebounding has been very good so far. He got some big offensive rebounds when we needed some points early in the game and he helped us get out to that lead. Travis is doing his thing; we see it every day in practice. He's quietly a really good player and did well tonight.”
On the team moving forward
“I like our schemes both defensively and offensively. We will continue to work to get better over the next nine or so days until our next game. I like what we're doing. There aren't a lot of tricks, but we still need to find who can play off this bench. Tonight we went with Marcus Washington a little bit to try him. He did a good job and played within himself which is what I wanted him to do. He had zero turnovers, which again, is what I wanted him to do. He's been a little turnover-prone in practice but not tonight which is a good thing. He also did a little scoring for us; so that is good news. I really wanted to see DeMondre [Harvey] have a good game and he did. In the second half he was outstanding. So we'll continue to look at all of these guys off the bench.”
