MONROE, La. – Senior Majok Deng matched a career-high with 33 points, and senior Justin Roberson netted a career-high 26 points to guide the ULM men's basketball program to an 85-74 victory over Troy on Thursday at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
ULM (7-11, 3-4 SBC) improved to 6-0 at home this season. The Warhawks shot 33-56 (.589) from the field, their best mark in conference play this year. They went 17-26 (.654) from the field in the second half and drained 10 three-pointers in the game on 23 attempts.
Deng and junior Nick Coppola both nailed four three-pointers. Coppola finished with a double-double with 14 points and 10 assists. Coppola, Deng and Roberson all played 40 minutes in the contest.
In addition to his 26 points, Roberson also tallied seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Deng shot 12-20 from the field while Roberson was 11-14.
Troy (6-12, 1-6 SBC) was led by Jeremy Hollimon's 26 points. Shawn Hopkins and Jordon Varnado posted 11 points each, and John Walton III scored 10.
Roberson got off to a hot start as he scored the first seven points for the Warhawks to give them an early 7-5 lead. A three-pointer by Deng extended the edge to 19-14 at the 11:39 mark.
Still up 27-24, the Trojans made a free throw, followed by a three-pointer to take a 28-27 lead with 5:05 to go. ULM responded with a big 13-0 run which included a pair of field goals from Coppola, four free throws and a dunk by Deng to take a 40-28 advantage. Troy's Walton scored a bucket in the closing seconds of the half, but ULM led 40-30.
After the Trojans scored the first two baskets of the second half, ULM answered with an 11-0 run which included back-to-back three-pointers from Coppola to give the Warhawks a 51-34 edge at the 16:36 mark.
ULM led 53-36 when Troy went on an 8-0 run to make it a single-digit game, 53-44 with 13:11 remaining. The Warhawks pushed back with a jumper and a three-pointer by Deng to lead 58-44 with 11:53 to go.
ULM took its biggest lead of the game, 73-54 after a three-pointer by Deng at the 6:55 mark. The Trojans scored the final six points of the game with under 27 seconds left to make it an 85-74 final.
The Warhawks will seek an undefeated weekend on Saturday at home when they host South Alabama at 4:00 p.m. at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
NOTES
- ULM's 85 points was the most it has scored in a Sun Belt Conference game since Jan. 4, 2014 when it defeated UL-Lafayette, 103-98 in double overtime
- The Warhawks improved to 410-173 all-time in Fant-Ewing Coliseum and 20-4 (.833) over the last two seasons
- ULM has now held SBC opponents to under 75 points in 35 straight games including postseason play
- The Warhawks posted their third consecutive win over Troy after sweeping the season series last year
- As a team, the Warhawks entered the game third in the conference in field goal percentage (.437) and improved their total by shooting .589
- ULM outscored Troy 21-14 in points off turnovers. The Warhawks forced 14 turnovers and committed just nine
- Deng matched his career-high in scoring, previously set against Central Baptist on Dec. 18, 2015. It was his third 30-plus scoring game of the season. It was also the eighth 20-plus scoring game of his career and sixth on the year. Deng has scored at least 14 points in 10 of his last 11 outings. It was his 38th career double-figure scoring game and 13th this season
- With three blocks in the game, Deng moved into a tie for seventh-place all-time in career blocks at ULM with Calvin Natt who also swatted away 71. Deng surpassed Carlos Funchess who was in eighth
- Roberson etched his second consecutive career-high scoring game as he posted 20 points at Georgia Southern last Saturday. He notched his eighth double-figure scoring games in his last nine outings. It was his 26th career double-digit scoring game and 11th this year
- Roberson entered the game ranking third in the league in steals (1.8 spg) and swiped three in the contest. He also came in as ULM's best three-point shooter (.421) and went 2-3 from beyond-the-arc
- Coppola recorded his third career double-double and second this season. It was his 37th career double-figure scoring game and ninth this year. Coppola played at least 40 minutes for the 29th time in his career. He's seventh all-time in career assists with 313 and needs 11 more to catch Casey Jones who is in sixth with 324
- Freshman Travis Munnings entered the game ranking second in the SBC in field goal percentage (.540) and went 2-3 from the field and ended with six points
- The Warhawks are the second-winningest program over the last two seasons in terms of Sun Belt Conference victories
- ULM featured a starting lineup of Coppola, Roberson, Deng, senior Jamaal Samuel and senior DeMondre Harvey for the first time this year
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
On how the offense was able to play so well
“I'm assuming it's because we're at home. We've scored points at home in all six of our games here. I don't know what the difference is, playing at home or playing on the road in terms of scoring, but it's certainly nice to be home and see us put up some points.”
On Justin Roberson
"He and Majok played great. Justin in particular because not only did he play great on offense but he guarded the other team's best player. So he was doing it on both ends for 40 minutes, and that's pretty good. This might have been his best game as a Warhawk.”
On changing the starting lineup
“Those five guys, over the course of 17 games, had been our five best players. So we wanted to get them on the floor at the same time and move Majok to the “three” position to try and get him more shots on the perimeter and spread the floor. That was the thought process. I don't know if it really worked or not because as the game moved along Troy was driving and got us in foul trouble and we had to take DeMondre and Jamaal out. We went to a smaller lineup and played man-to-man, and that lineup worked well for a while. So I don't really know about the move that we made if that did anything or not. We'll have to get in the film room and see what we will do next.”
On Nick Coppola
“It was really nice to see him hit some three-point shots. He's been hard on himself for missing some lately. I've been hollering out there to him to shoot more actually to open up the floor, so hopefully this will build his confidence to be able to make more and shoot more.”
Quoting senior Justin Roberson
On how big of a win this was for the team
“It was really big. We're trying to move up the charts. We had a couple previously that we struggled with and we wanted to come out, compete and win. We just wanted to play hard and play our hearts out.”
On his career-high
'I just wanted to go out there hard and drive to the basket. I wanted to do what coach tells me and do it to perfection.”
On how long they will celebrate this win before thinking about South Alabama
“We're already moving forward. We're looking forward to South Alabama coming in and we're just going to compete hard.”
