ATLANTA – Juniors Prince Cooper and Marcus Washington recorded career-highs off the bench, but the ULM men's basketball couldn't overcome a slow start and dropped a 65-51 decision to Georgia State on Thursday at GSU Sports Arena.
ULM (6-10, 2-3 SBC) trailed Georgia State (11-3, 4-1 SBC) by 18 points at the half and 26 points in the second half, but came back to outscore the Panthers 16-4 over the last eight minutes.
Cooper finished with 12 points to match his career-high. He went five-for-seven from the field and grabbed five rebounds in 20 minutes. Washington set career-highs of 10 points and five rebounds.
The Warhawks outscored the Panthers 30-26 off the bench. Senior DeMondre Harvey pitched in with eight points on three-for-three shooting. It marked the first time this season that more than half of ULM's scoring in the game came from off the bench.
GSU, the defending Sun Belt Conference regular season and postseason champion, used a big 16-1 run in the first half to go up 31-13 with 5:07 remaining after making six of its first seven three-pointers. The Warhawks couldn't get into enough of a flow offensively to get back in it until the very end.
The Panthers were led by Jeff Thomas who scored 14 points and went four-for-five from long-range. Jeremy Hollowell and Isaiah Thomas scored 10 points apiece.
Senior Majok Deng finished with six points, six rebounds and two blocks.
ULM will wrap-up its four-game road trip on Saturday when it faces Georgia Southern at 4:00 p.m. (CT) at Hanner Fieldhouse on ESPN3.
NOTES
- ULM has now held SBC opponents to under 75 points in 33 straight games including postseason play
- The Warhawks moved to 5-5 all-time against Georgia State
- Junior Nick Coppola moved into seventh-place all-time in career assists at ULM with 301. He surpassed John Pickett who dished out 300 from 1976-1980. Coppola entered the game ranking 41st in the nation in minutes played (35.5 mpg) and was right on par by logging 35 minutes
- Cooper matched his career-high of 12 points set previously against McMurry. His five made field goals was a career-high
- Washington surpassed his previous career-best of nine points against McMurry. He went four-for-eight from the field – his four makes were a career-high
- Harvey entered the game shooting .518 from the field and upped to .542 after a perfect night shooting. Harvey has led the team in field goal percentage each of the last two seasons
- Deng moved into a tie for eighth-place all-time in career blocks at ULM with 68. He's tied with Carlos Funchess and needs three more to catch Calvin Natt and move into seventh
- ULM outrebounded GSU 35-27 and held a 15-9 edge in second-chance points
- The Warhawks and the Panthers are the two winningest programs over the last two seasons in terms of Sun Belt Conference victories. Georgia State is now a combined 19-6, while ULM is 16-9
