THE MATCHUP
Teams: ULM (0-0, 0-0 SBC)
Centenary (0-0, 0-0 SCAC)
Location: Fant-Ewing Coliseum, Monroe, La.
Time: 1:00 p.m.
MONROE, La. – ULM men's basketball opens is 47th season on Friday afternoon the Centenary Gents come to Fant-Ewing Coliseum for ULM's 2016-17 regular season opener. Tipoff is slated for 1:00 p.m. and will be streamed live online through Warhawks All-Access.
GAME NOTES
Last Time Out: ULM used an offensive explosion in exhibition action against Louisiana College, defeating the Wildcats 103-68 on Monday night. The Warhawks were led by sophomore forward Travis Munnings, who dropped 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the floor (2-of-3 from three-point range) while also adding six rebounds and four assists. Munnings was one of six Warhawks to post double figure scoring in Monday night's contest.
Head-to-Head: The Warhawks and Gents will face off for the 34th time in each school's respective history on Friday afternoon. The last time these two teams faced off, ULM came away a 60-46 win in December 2010. ULM is 7-6 all-time at home against Centenary including winning four of the previous five inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
100 Career Starts: Nick Coppola is scheduled on Friday to make his 100th career start in his 100th career game as a Warhawk. He would become just the 5th player in school history to start 100 career games.
Home Court Success: The Warhawks are looking to continue protection of their home court as they are 27-4 inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum over their previous two years including a perfect 13-0 mark one season ago. The Warhawks are 47-18 all-time in home openers and will look to win for the fourth year in a row.
Warhawks kick-off 2016-17 campaign: The ULM Men's basketball team will enter the 2016-2017 season with a young roster, as only two Warhawks have played significant playing time for seventh-year head coach Keith Richard. Nick Coppola leads the Warhawks into this season coming off of a year where he set the ULM career assists mark with his 409 career assists over his first three seasons. Travis Munnings as a freshman last season played in every game for the Warhawks averaging 7.2 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game.
New Faces: ULM brings in five new faces to the young squad who will look to make an immediate impact for the Warhawks. Junior transfer guard Jordon Harris comes in after averaging 18.5 points per game and five assists per game at Lamar State JC. Sam McDaniel from Australia by way of SE Iowa JC comes into this season following a 13 points per game and eight rebounds per game last year. Sam Alabakis, Kiir Deng and Marvin Jean-Pierre round out that group that will look to make an early impact this season.
Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi: The Warhawks open the year with three players from a land down under as Sam Alabakis, Sam McDaniel and Kiir Deng all come to ULM with Australian backgrounds. All three are newcomers this season as McDaniel and Deng are transfers from SE Iowa JC and Copiah-Lincoln JC, respectively, well Alabakis is a true freshman.
Road Hawks: Following Friday's home opener vs Centenary the Warhawks will head out on the road for four straight matchups as a part the Legends Classic. ULM will do battle with at both No. 21 Texas and Colorado before traveling to Cheney, Washington to battle Seattle and either Bryant or Eastern Washington.
QUOTABLES:
Head Coach Keith Richard
Thoughts heading into Friday: Our team is excited about opening up the season against Centenary on Friday. This new team has many unanswered questions and is also an inexperienced group. The only way to answer those questions and gain the necessary experience is to start playing games and we are all looking forward to this Friday.
UP NEXT
-Following Friday afternoon's contest, the Warhawks will get set to go on the road for the first time this season, and will square off against No. 21 Texas on Monday night. Tipoff on Monday is slated for 7:00 p.m. inside the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.
