MONROE, La. – Improving to 10-0 at home this season, the ULM men's basketball program led for the entire second half and defeated Little Rock, the top-team in the Sun Belt Conference standings, 86-82 on Thursday at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
Little Rock (21-3, 11-2 SBC) came into the game with the best record in the nation.
ULM (12-12, 8-5 SBC) led by 10 with 3:35 left when Little Rock forced turnovers and chipped away to make it a three-point game, 74-71, with 1:56 remaining. Though, the Trojans never had the ball down by one possession and junior Nick Coppola hit a free throw with 4.6 seconds left to seal it.
Seniors Majok Deng and Justin Roberson notched 23 points apiece to lead all scorers. Coppola and freshman Travis Munnings each tallied 11 points, and senior DeMondre Harvey neared a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds.
The Warhawks shot 8-15 from three-point range in the game, including a 5-7 mark in the first half while holding LR to a 6-21 mark. ULM also went 27-53 (.509) from the field, and the Trojans finished 30-65 (.462).
LR was led by Josh Hagins who registered 19 points. Jalen Jackson finished with 12 points, Mareik Isom 11, Roger Woods 10 and Lis Shoshi 10.
ULM trailed 15-12 in the first half when it used a 10-0 run which included three-pointers by Munnings and Deng to go up 22-15 with 8:52 remaining. A three-pointer by senior Jamaal Samuel and a pair of free throws by Munnings upped the lead to 35-23 with 4:07 left.
Two more free throws by Deng at the 2:09 mark increased ULM's edge to 40-27, its biggest lead of the game. The Warhawks carried a 42-32 advantage at the intermission.
The Trojans came out hot early in the second half and quickly cut the deficit to 44-38 with 17:44 to go. ULM answered with four consecutive field goals including a trio from Roberson to get the edge back up to 54-42 with 15:33 remaining.
LR came back with a 7-0 run as ULM called timeout, still ahead 54-49 with 12:07 left. The Warhawks responded with a 7-1 spurt, capped by a steal and dunk by Munnings, to extend the lead back up to 61-50 at the 9:38 mark.
The Warhawks held a 74-65 lead with 3:10 left when the Trojans went on a 6-0 run which included a pair of quick steals and converted them into layups to make it a 74-71 game with 1:56 left. ULM answered with a 5-0 run which included three free throws and a lay-up by Roberson to get the lead back up to 79-71 with 1:07 to go.
The Trojans kept battling and got the deficit back down to 85-82 with 10 seconds left, but senior Mack Foster found Harvey on a deep in-bounds pass which burned six seconds off the clock, and he passed to Coppola who was fouled with four seconds remaining.
ULM will close out the weekend at home against Arkansas State at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Warhawks will honor their 1985-86 team at halftime for their 30-year anniversary of making the NCAA Tournament.
NOTES
- Little Rock entered the game ranked No. 2 nationally in the CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top-25 poll. It was ULM's second win over a top-10 team in the poll as it defeated No. 6 Chattanooga, 64-54 earlier this season
- The Warhawks are 10-0 (7-0 SBC) at home and have won nine of the 10 games by double-figures. ULM is 24-4 (.857) at home over the last two seasons and 414-173 all-time in Fant-Ewing Coliseum
- ULM has now won five of the last six meetings against Little Rock and improved to 7-6 all-time at home
- The Warhawks have won six of seven games since switching their starting lineup to Coppola, Roberson, Deng, Samuel and Harvey
- ULM is now 6-0 in conference play when it scores at least 80 points and 7-0 when it shoots over 50 percent from the field
- In ULM's last 41 games against SBC opponents, it has only allowed 75 points three times – ironically, all three resulted in victories
- The Warhawks are at least three games over .500 after 13 league games for the second year in a row
- ULM holds a 22-11 SBC record over the last two seasons, the second best in the league
- The Warhawks entered the game leading the conference in field goal percentage (.457) and upped it with a .509 mark. They were also second in assists (13.7 apg) and dished out 16
- In his last eight games, Roberson has posted the seven highest scoring totals of his career, all of at least 20 points. He went 10-17 from the field in 37 minutes. It was the second time this year he's made at least 10 field goals. Roberson etched his 31st career double-figure scoring game and 16th this season
- Deng entered the game ranking 41st in the nation in scoring (19.4 ppg) and increased it with his 23 points. He made a career-high 12 free throws. Deng submitted his 11th career 20-plus scoring game and ninth this season. It was also his 44th career double-digit scoring outing and 19th this year. Deng, who ranks seventh all-time in ULM history in blocks with 82, swatted away a block in the game and needs seven more to move into sixth and catch Rudy Turner
- Coppola scored his sixth double-figure scoring game in his last seven appearances. It was his 42nd career double-digit scoring game and 14th this year. He distributed six assists in the game and now has 349 for his career. Coppola needs 16 more to catch Bob Carson and move into third all-time in ULM history. Coppola moved into fourth all-time in career minutes with 3,154, surpassing Gerald Morris who logged 3,153. He played 36 minutes in the contest. Coppola has started every game of his career and ranks sixth all-time with 89 career starts
- Munnings entered the game ranking second in the SBC in field goal percentage (.540) and was a perfect 3-3 in the game including 2-2 from long-range. It marked his 11th double-figure scoring game
- Harvey pulled down his fifth career double-figure rebounding game and second this season. He's led the team in field goal percentage in back-to-back seasons and went 3-6 from the field in the game
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“It was an outstanding win against a very good team. Little Rock was 21-2 coming into the game, the best record in the country. They've won many Division I road games and are obviously leading our league. So it was a really, really good win for our team.”
On Little Rock trying to make a comeback down the stretch
“They showed why they have the record that they do. We played well, but at the same time we didn't play well. We played well enough to win, but I'm disappointed that we blew a double-digit lead with three minutes to go by throwing the ball away and making some bone-head fouls. Those kinds of things have gotten us beat on the road. So, we did play well for a lot of this game and I'm certainly very happy, but the end sort of disappointed me because it should have been a double-digit win. But a win is a win and we'll take it.”
On Majok Deng
“We had to play off the post a lot today and we worked on that this week. We got a lot of fouls in the post and Majok got to the free throw line. We played a lot more in the post in this game than we did in the last game and it was good for us. Majok making free throws was a big part of this win.”
On Travis Munnings
“He hit some big threes in the first half. It was big because they had to honor him a little bit when we threw the ball in the post. That opened up the post for us. Our three-point shooting really helped us play off the post. Either Little Rock had to help in the post which would leave someone open for three, or they didn't and we'd have one-on-one in the post. We got some scores and some fouls, so it worked pretty well.”
On ULM's three-point shooting
“Shooting this high of a percentage against a team like Little Rock really is an outstanding effort. We played really, really well in a lot of ways, I just wish we wouldn't have turned the ball over in the end.”
Quoting senior Majok Deng
On defeating the top team in the league standings
“We knew Little Rock was a great team, but we did a great job of sticking together. We were able to get some stops in the end to pull it off.”
On whether he was ever concerned that the game may have been slipping away in the end
“No, we are at home and play with a lot of confidence. We know we are a great team. We didn't score for a little bit but we knew it was going to come. Everyone contributed tonight and did a great job.”
Quoting senior Justin Roberson
On how big of a win this was for the team
“It was really big. We just wanted to get this win to move up in the standings and keep pace at the top."
On Arkansas State on Saturday
“It's a big game, and we're trying to stay perfect at home and continue to streak.”
