HOUSTON – Tied at 49 in the second half, Houston went on a 13-0 run to pull away and ultimately earn a 76-64 result over the ULM men's basketball program on Saturday at Hofheinz Pavillion.
Freshman Travis Munning posted a career-high 18 points and went 8-12 from the field and also pulled down six rebounds. Junior Nick Coppola poured in a season-high 15 points for ULM (2-2) on 6-11 shooting.
Houston (3-0) was led by Rob Gray Jr.'s 22 points off the bench. LeRon Barnes aided the attack with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Ronnie Johnson had 13 points.
The Warhawks got off to a hot start and led 11-6 early after making five of their first eight shots. After the Cougars cut it to 15-14, ULM used a 6-0 run to go back up 21-14 after a fast-break bucket from senior Mack Foster at the 10-minute mark.
Still up 23-16, Houston came back with a 7-0 run to tie it, 23-23 with 5:48 remaining. ULM went back up, 27-23 after a pair of free throws by junior Prince Cooper and a strong move by Munnings.
The Warhawks led 32-30 with a minute left when Barnes hit a three-pointer and Galen Robinson Jr. hit a jumper at the buzzer to give the Cougars a 35-32 edge at half.
The Cougars extended their lead to 40-32 early in the second, but ULM came back and pulled to within one, 42-41 with 15:08 to go after a jumper by senior Majok Deng. The Warhawks tied it, 49-49 after senior Justin Roberson drove and found Munnings underneath for the lay-in with 11:36 remaining.
UH responded with back-to-back three-pointers as ULM called a timeout trailing 55-49 at the 10:40 mark. The Cougars kept it going and made it a 13-0 run to lead 62-49 with 8:33 left.
Four straight points from Coppola got the deficit down to single digits for the last time, 69-60 with 1:34 to go.
The Warhawks will return home on Monday when they host Chattanooga at 7:00 p.m. at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. Follow the ULM men's basketball program on twitter, @ULM_MBB, for live in-game updates.
NOTES
- ULM saw its streak of 47 consecutive games of holding an opponent to under 75 points come to an end. It was the second longest streak in the nation. It was snapped on a jumper by Ronnie Johnson with nine seconds remaining
- The Warhawks had won the previous two meetings against Houston coming into the game
- ULM outscored UH in the paint, 36-30. The Warhawks have outscored their opposition in the paint in all four games this season
- Munnings notched his third consecutive double-figure scoring game. He broke his previous career-high of 14 points set in ULM's last outing at Northwestern State. Munnings also played a career-high 37 minutes
- Coppola registered his 29th career double-digit scoring game and first of the season. He also dished out three assists in the game
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“We played well for most of the first half. We sort of imploded at the end of the first half which wasn't good. Then in the middle of the second half we had a tie game and we imploded again and it got away from us. We had trouble staying in front of their guards. Their guards broke us down off the dribble and it gave them opportunities to make plays at the rim. [Houston] also got offensive rebounds out of it and then hit some timely three-point shots. It all came from our inability to stay in front of their guards. We kept searching up and down the bench to see if we could find some guys that could help us really stay in front of the ball and we just couldn't. Their guards really hurt us.”
On UH's Rob Gray Jr.
“He was a big difference in the game. We couldn't guard him. We tried and just couldn't stop him from driving it on us or stopping the three-point shot.”
On UH's 13-0 run
“We had some turnovers during that stretch, right when they got hot. We talked about turnovers before the game. We only had 12 in the game but we had some untimely ones when they got hot and it really hurt us.”
On his message to the team after the game
“I told the team in the locker room that it felt like we had a good team on the floor for many parts of the game – just like it felt at Minnesota. But we're not quite tight enough, yet, to go win that game. It's happened in both games where we were just not quite where we need to be – whether it's offense, defense, shooting, turnovers, etc. We're just not there yet. We're close, we're not far from beating some good people but for whatever reason we're just not quite where we need to be to go win that type of game.”
On Travis Munnings
“Travis did an outstanding job in the first half. He was really striking off the dribble and got to the rim. He also had some post-ups where he scored. In the second half I think he showed a little fatigue since he played a lot of minutes. For a freshman though he obviously did outstanding. We have to get some of our other players going though offensively especially against good teams.”
