LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The ULM men's basketball program had three shots to win the game in the last nine seconds, but the ball just would not go down for the Warhawks as Little Rock hung on by the slightest of all margins, 58-57 on Saturday at the Jack Stephens Center.
The Warhawks (6-9, 2-2 SBC) had the ball down by one with nine seconds left when they ran the floor and found senior Jamaal Samuel for three, but it was off the mark. Senior Majok Deng tried to tip-in the rebound, but his put-back rolled around the rim and popped out. Senior Justin Roberson grabbed the offensive rebound and put up a shot at the last second, but his attempt also rolled around the rim and came out at the buzzer.
Roberson finished with a game-high 17 points and six rebounds. Deng registered 15 points and six rebounds, and Samuel posted 10 points. Off the bench, junior Prince Cooper tallied six points on 3-4 shooting.
The Trojans (14-1, 4-0 SBC), who are ranked third in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 Poll, were led by Lis Shoshi's 10 points. LR was balanced offensively as five other student-athletes had at least eight points.
Both teams shot nearly the same shooting percentage as ULM went 22-50 (.440) and LR 23-53 (.434). The Warhawks turned the ball over just nine times marking the second straight game they had under 10 turnovers. The Trojans committed just eight turnovers.
After LR's Josh Hagins opened the game with a three-pointer, ULM answered with a 9-0 run which included five points from Roberson to go up 9-3 early. The Warhawks extended their edge to 20-9 after a lay-in by Samuel and a three-pointer by Roberson at the 9:17 mark. ULM took its biggest lead of the game, 25-11, with a three-pointer by Samuel and a pair of free throws by Deng with 7:41 left.
The Trojans responded with a big 14-0 spurt to tie the game, 25-25, as ULM called timeout with 1:54 remaining. The Warhawks scored the final basket of the half after junior Nick Coppola found Deng open underneath at the end of the shot clock to put ULM ahead 27-25.
Coppola scored the first basket of the second half on a drive, but LR punched back with a 12-0 run to take a 37-29 lead with 16:59 to go. The Warhawks came back with an 8-0 run which featured three-pointers from Coppola and Roberson to tie at 37 with 13:44 remaining.
After LR re-gained the lead, 49-45 at the 6:24 mark, ULM answered with a lay-in by Cooper and a jumper by Coppola as the Trojans called timeout with 4:40 left with the game tied. A pair of free throws by Deng completed the 6-0 run to put ULM ahead, 51-49 with 3:47 remaining.
The Trojans reeled off five straight points after a three-pointer and a corner jumper to go back up, 54-51 at the 2:54 mark. ULM trailed 58-53 when Deng made a lay-up with 1:07 left.
After the Warhawks got a stop defensively, Roberson hit a jumper with 17 seconds as ULM trailed 58-57. However, the Warhawks had just three team fouls and had to foul four times to send the Trojans to the free throw line with nine seconds remaining. Shoshi missed the front end of the one-and-one and ULM grabbed it and ran the floor.
The game featured five ties and six lead changes.
The Warhawks will continue their four-game road trip next weekend beginning on Thursday when they square off against Georgia State at 6:30 p.m. (CT) in Atlanta.
NOTES
- It was Little Rock's first win over ULM in the last five tries
- ULM has now held SBC opponents to under 75 points in 32 straight games including postseason play
- The Warhawks shot .440 from the field despite the Trojans leading the league in field goal percentage defense with a .362 clip
- ULM outrebounded Little Rock, 33-31
- Roberson was two points away from his career-high as he notched his sixth consecutive double-figure scoring game, ninth this season and 24th of his career. He went 7-12 from the field and 3-3 from beyond-the-arc
- Deng scored at least 15 points for the eighth consecutive game. He's reached double-figures in scoring in 19 of the last 20 games dating back to last season. It was his 36th career double-digit scoring game and 11th of the year. He played a game-high 38 minutes in the contest
- Samuel turned in his ninth double-figure scoring game of the year and 17th of his career. He reached double-figures in both games this weekend as he also scored 15 points against Arkansas State on Thursday
- Coppola ranks eighth all-time in career assists at ULM with 299 and is one away from catching John Pickett for seventh. Coppola dished out four assists in the game and had no turnovers. He entered the game ranking 42nd in the nation in minutes per game (35.5 mpg) and logged 36 minutes
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“What a great effort by our team. I asked them to lay it all out there and I thought they really did. It was a tremendous effort by our team. We got to the end of the game with a few minutes to go and we were right there. It was about making plays at the end, and Little Rock made a couple more plays and that was the difference in the game. They had a couple more offensive plays, a shot here and there that they made or we missed, and that's all it took to swing this game.”
On Prince Cooper off the bench
“He did okay having not played in a few games. We wanted to give him a chance tonight because of his dribble-penetration. Little Rock is very hard to dribble-penetrate against because it packs it in man-to-man. Prince is one of our better drivers so we thought he could get in there a little bit and he did and found himself some buckets.”
