STATESBORO, Ga. – In a back-and-forth battle between the top two teams in the Sun Belt Conference standings, the ULM men's basketball program pulled out a 71-68 overtime thriller on the road over Georgia Southern on Saturday at a noisy Hanner Fieldhouse.
ULM (16-8, 10-3 SBC) thought it had the game won at the end of regulation when junior Mack Foster put-back an offensive rebound in the closing seconds, but it was waved off after a clock malfunction.
In overtime, the Warhawks built a five-point lead on Georgia Southern (16-5, 9-3 SBC) after sophomore Nick Coppola hit his third three-pointer of the game and senior Tylor Ongwae scored in transition.
The Eagles clawed their way back and had the ball down by one with the shot clock turned off when Mike Hughes was forced to take a contested jumper with four seconds left. Ongwae grabbed the rebound and hit a pair of free throws with 0.9 seconds left to close it out.
It marked ULM's fourth consecutive victory and sixth straight on the road.
Ongwae led the way with a team-high 19 points, five rebounds and three steals. Junior Jamaal Samuel posted his second consecutive big-game with 17 points, one shy of his career-high. Foster finished the game with 12 points including a pair of three-pointers. Junior Justin Roberson dished out a game-high six assists.
Ongwae and Coppola both played 45 minutes.
In the game, ULM shot 51.9 percent (27-52) from the field and 52.6 percent (10-19) from three-point range.
Jelani Hewitt and Trent Wiedeman led the Eagles with 14 points apiece. Eric Ferguson also played a big role with 13 points off the bench.
ULM trailed 8-4 early when it used a 9-0 run, capped by a three-pointer by Coppola, to go up 13-8 with 11:39 remaining. The Eagles quickly tied, 13-13, it after a 5-0 spurt at the 10:41 mark.
Still tied, 24-24, Foster hit a three-pointer in the corner and Ongwae scored on the fast-break to put ULM up, 29-24 with 3:22 left. The Warhawks took their biggest lead of the half, 34-27, after a tip-in by Samuel and they carried a 34-29 edge at the break.
The Eagles came out on fire in the second half used a 9-0 run to take a 38-34 advantage. The GS offense stayed hot throughout the half and took its biggest lead, 50-42 with 7:53 to go.
ULM came back with a three-pointer by Samuel and a lay-in by Foster to cut the deficit to 50-47 at the 6:49 mark. After GS scored the next basket, the Warhawks answered with a 6-0 run to take the lead, 52-51, after a bucket from Foster with 5:09 left.
The seesaw battle continued until Ongwae drilled a long-range shot to put ULM up 62-58 with 1:32 left. The Eagles responded with a basket from Wiedeman, a defensive stop, and a made free throw by Hewitt to make it 62-61 ULM with 45 seconds left.
The Eagles forced a turnover and got fouled with six seconds left when Curtis Diamond made the first but missed the second free throw. Roberson pulled down the board and went end-to-end but the finish rolled out; the clock was then stopped with the ball still in play when Foster put it back in.
The Warhawks will return home on Thursday when they go for win No. 400 all-time at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. They will take on rival UL-Lafayette at 7:00 p.m.
NOTES
- ULM won its sixth consecutive road game for the first time since 1993-94
- The Warhawks handed the Eagles their first home loss of the season. GS entered the game 10-0 at Hanner Fieldhouse. ULM also snapped GS' five-game winning-streak
- ULM improved to 9-2 all-time against Georgia Southern including a 5-1 mark on the road. ULM head coach Keith Richard remained undefeated in Hanner Fieldhouse as a player and coach as he went 4-0 in the arena in a ULM uniform
- The Warhawks moved to 3-0 in SBC overtime games this season. Coach Richard moved to 20-9 all-time in overtime games in his head coaching career
- ULM improved to 14-0 on the season when they have at least three double-figure scorers
- The Warhawks improved to 8-0 on the year when they shoot over 50 percent from the field
- Ongwae tallied his 40th career double-figure scoring game and 16th this season. It was the 10th time he lead the team in scoring. The 45 minutes marked a season-high. His career-high in minutes is 46 in a double-overtime game against UL-Lafayette last season. Ongwae entered the game leading the SBC in free throw percentage and was a perfect 2-2 in the contest
- Samuel registered his fifth double-figure scoring game of the season, second in a row and sixth of his career
- Foster etched his fourth double-digit scoring game of the year. He matched his career-high with five field goals made
- Coppola entered the game ranking third in the league in assists (3.9 apg) and was on par with four in the game. He played at least 40 minutes for the 17th time in his career and eighth time this season. Coppola made three long-range shots for the fourth time this year
- ULM's .526 three-point percentage was its highest in SBC play this season
- The Warhawks moved 0.5 games ahead of Georgia Southern for first-place in the Sun Belt Conference standings with seven games to-go
- ULM remained as the only team in the SBC that has not allowed 75 points in a single game this season. It is also one of nine teams left in the nation to accomplish that. The list also includes Cincinnati, New Mexico, George Washington, Oregon State, Saint Peters, Utah, Baylor and New Hampshire
- The Warhawks have now surpassed their conference win total from last season by three games and have also surpassed their overall win total by six games when they finished 10-17 (7-11 SBC)
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening statement
“It was a tremendous win and our best road win of the season, without question. It was under adverse conditions with the crowd and they hadn't lost here at home this year. Georgia Southern has a really good team and was in first-place in our league. There were numerous things that didn't go our way including a game-clock malfunction when we thought the game was won. We also had some bad turnovers, we faced it all. Still, what an effort by these players and I'm so, so proud of it. It took a warrior-like effort to win this game.”
On ULM's final possession in regulation
“The officials said the clock stopped on Justin's miss. So they took a second off in their minds, maybe even two seconds because there was no actual clock. Nevertheless, we deserved to win the game because of the way we played.”
On Jamaal Samuel
“Jamaal hit some huge shots. He hit them at a time when we were struggling on defense and we went to a 3-2 zone. We hadn't played a 3-2 in about two months and we went to it for about four or five possessions. We got some stops to stop the bleeding on that end, and Jamaal hit those threes during that period which turned the game back for us. Now we're in a close game going down the stretch where we are comfortable at. So it was a big moment in this game.”
On Tylor Ongwae
“Tylor played 45 minutes and played like a warrior. He led our team tonight, he really did.”
