MONROE, La. – Big plays near the end of a back-and-forth second half helped the ULM men's basketball program shake off a red-hot Chattanooga team, 64-54 on Monday evening at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
ULM (3-2) was led by senior Majok Deng's 22 points which matched his career-high. Deng went 8-12 from inside the arc and was also a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line to go along with his six rebounds.
Junior Nick Coppola came up clutch near the end of the game and ended with 14 points and matched his season-high with five assists. Freshman Travis Munnings was also a key contributor with 14 points.
Chattanooga (5-2) came to Fant-Ewing Coliseum after posting wins against Georgia and Illinois this year. The Mocs are ranked No. 8 in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 poll and received one first-place vote. UTC also received a vote in last week's national Associated Press Top-25 ranking.
Casey Jones led the Mocs with 14 points and nine rebounds. He was the only UTC player in double-figures for a UTC team that made nine three-pointers.
ULM trailed 6-2 early when it went on a big 15-0 run which included a fast-break dunk and a three-pointer by Munnings to go up 17-6 with 9:57 remaining.
After the Mocs cut the deficit to 19-12, Deng put in back-to-back buckets to spark a 5-0 run to push the lead back up to 24-12 at the 4:27 mark. UTC scored the final basket of the half on a three-pointer by Alex Bran to make it a 28-20 game at the intermission.
The Mocs knocked down a couple early jumpers in the second half to cut the deficit to 29-25 with 16:55 to go. After a jumper by Munnings made it 33-27, UTC responded with a 7-0 run to take the lead, 34-33 on a three-pointer by Tre' McLean with 11:57 remaining.
ULM trailed 36-35 when Deng converted a lay-up and a pair of free throws to put ULM back on top, 39-36 at the 10:18 mark. After UTC tied it, 39-39, the Warhawks posted a 7-0 run capped by a strong move to the basket by senior Justin Roberson to go up 46-39 with 6:27 left.
The Warhawks extended the lead out to 50-41 after Roberson found Coppola for a lay-in on the fast-break with 5:09 to go. UTC came back with a pair of three-pointers to trail 52-47 with 4:12 remaining.
ULM put the game away late on a pair of slashing drives by Coppola, including an old-fashion three-point play to make it a 60-50 score with 1:02 left.
Up next, ULM will begin Sun Belt Conference play on Thursday when it hosts SBC Preseason favorite UL-Lafayette on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
NOTES
- It was the first-ever meeting between ULM and Chattanooga. ULM improved to 17-8 all-time against teams currently in the Southern Conference (8-2 vs. Mercer; 7-5 vs. Samford; 1-1 vs. ETSU)
- The Warhawks continued their streak of dominance in the paint and posted a 32-12 edge over UTC. ULM has outscored every opponent this season in the paint
- ULM has not lost a non-conference home game in the month of November since 2011-12
- The Warhawks are now 406-173 all-time in Fant-Ewing Coliseum and 2-0 this season
- ULM has held the opposition to under 75 points in 48 of its last 49 games
- The Warhawks outrebounded the Mocs, 36-33. ULM has out rebounded the opposition in four of its five games this year
- Deng reached double-figures in scoring for the 12th time in the last 13 games dating back to last season. It was his 29th career double-digit scoring game and fourth this season. Deng last scored 22 points last season in the CBI semifinals against Vermont
- Munnings registered his fourth consecutive double-figure scoring game of the year
- Coppola recorded his second straight double-figure scoring game and the 30th of his career. He also had a season-high two steals. Coppola played his 26th career 40-minute game
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“Very good win against a very good team. We felt good in the locker room because we understood that we did beat a quality opponent. [Chattanooga] would be one of the better teams in the Sun Belt. That team beat Georgia and Illinois, they'll win a bunch of games this year. So our team feels good about the work that they put in tonight and that's a good feeling for them leading into another home game against another good team on Thursday.”
On overcoming dry spells on offense
“That's the step that we hadn't been able to take against Minnesota and Houston. Anytime it got to be a close game in the second half we fell apart for a little bit and the games got away from us. Tonight, that didn't happen which is big progress. Our defense was good all game – we were playing against a great offensive team. They shoot 49 percent from the field on the year and 40 percent from the three-point line and we held them to 35 [from the field] and 31 [from beyond-the-arc]. Our defense is always pretty good, but we needed to show some progress on offense and I thought we did. Once the game got tight in the second half we really moved the ball and made plays at the rim. Justin Roberson got to the free throw line, Majok made plays at the rim - and what can you say about Nick Coppola. He made some driving layups with the shot clock running down. Maybe we grew up a little bit tonight in that respect on the offensive side to help us become a better team.”
On Majok Deng
“I'm a little surprised about his three-point shooting because he shot it so well in the preseason. He's taken a lot of good threes, maybe a couple bad ones, but hopefully those will start going down. We'll need to make some threes along the way. We can't go the whole year winning games while going 2-14 from three and have to grind it out every night. It certainly would be nice if we had some nights where we shot the ball well from the three-point line, and I think Majok will shoot it better as we go along.”
On Nick Coppola
“We got him to start driving the ball early on. You could tell right away that he was having success getting in there, not only scoring, but also getting it to others. That helped him throughout the game, especially in tough moments because he had the confidence to go drive it. Fortunately for him tonight he was able to get all the way to the rim. Against Minnesota and Houston, we didn't see him getting all the way to the rim against bigger people. Chattanooga was athletic, not quite as tall, but Nick was able to get all the way in and make some big shots.”
Quoting ULM freshman Travis Munnings
On what he tries to bring to the team
“I just want to play good defense and motivate the team. We just want to play good defense and let our offense flow. I want to help push my teammates to the limit each and every day. Every time we step on the floor we have to give it our all.”
On how big of a win this was for the team
“This was a big win and we really needed it. We wanted to show that we can do a lot of things if we stay together. We have to learn from our mistakes and get better each and every day at practice. We still have a lot of tough games ahead of us so we just have to keep giving it our all.”
