The Storylines
• Saturday's 2 p.m. game is the last at home until March 3. The Warhawks will have to first embark on their second four-game Sun Belt road swing of the year. Prior to this season, ULM had not had such a stretch since playing six straight away from Fant-Ewing Coliseum (four road, two neutral) in November 2011.
• ULM recorded nine steals on the heels of having 10 at Appalachian State. The squad has recorded eight or more in 10 games on the year. Arkansas State enters the contest with the best turnover margin in the league (+6.5).
• The Trojans on Thursday shot just 2-for-13 from behind the arc. Opponents have made just 32 of their last 134 deep ball attempts (23.9 percent) against ULM since Jan. 14, excluding Texas State's 7-for-8 third quarter on Jan. 30. The Warhawks are No. 4 in SBC games-only with an opponent mark of 30.1 percent, but Arkansas State is also tops on the offensive side (36.1 percent).
• ULM has also experimented with limited substitutions lately. Thursday's game marked the first time ULM had fewer than four players on the floor for 30-plus minutes since Jan. 21 against Troy. The Warhawks also only used seven at Georgia Southern (Jan. 16).
• Alayshia Hunter needed 13 points to get to 1,000 and did just that in the first half of Thursday's game. She ended with a team-high 16. Her next target is Michelle Biley (2002-06), who had 1,026 career points. Hunter is the 18th member of the 1,000-point club.
The Opponent
Arkansas State comes into the day with a 19-3 record, arguably one of the best opposing records to enter Fant-Ewing Coliseum in a February. The Red Wolves own a 13-0 Sun Belt record, as well as the No. 2 scoring offense and No. 4 defense in league games-only. Aundrea Gamble (17.7 ppg) and Khadi Brown-Haywood (17.5 ppg) are in the top-three for the conference in scoring, while Brown-Haywood also holds a 10.2 rpg average.
Head coach Brian Boyer is synonymous with the school. He is in his 21st year on the staff and has been the head coach for the last 17. Boyer's first four years on staff were under Jeff Mittie, who had a successful tenure at TCU before being named Kansas State's head coach two years ago. The Red Wolves finished second in the Sun Belt last year and won the league title the year before.
The Series
It is a 24-13 all-time advantage for Arkansas State. ULM's last win in the series was in Monroe on New Year's Eve in 2011 that also capped off a three-game winning streak in the head-to-head battle. The shared history dates back to ULM's heyday in the mid-1980s, when NLU won the first seven meetings from 1983-86.
Last Warhawk-Red Wolf Contest
JONESBORO, Ark. – Arkansas State jumped out to a 22-10 first-quarter lead and held tight on defense en route to a 66-43 win over ULM on Thursday night in the Convocation Center.
“We simply had too many turnovers and couldn't make shots at the rim,” head coach Jeff Dow said. “Hats off to Arkansas State, which is a very good team that also played well tonight, but we also made too many mistakes.”
Arkansas State (9-3, 3-0 Sun Belt) posted a 13-2 run through the latter half of the first quarter to take an 18-10 lead on the Warhawks.
The ULM defense had one of its best showings of the season in the second quarter, against the Sun Belt's first-place team no less. The Red Wolves committed five turnovers as part of a 5:46 scoreless streak. Aundrea Gamble's layup ended the drought and started a 9-2 run that had the Warhawks trailing 36-16 at halftime.
Last ULM Game
MONROE, La. – Alayshia Hunter became ULM's 18th member of the 1,000-point club, but the Little Rock defense held up and defeated the Warhawks 53-37 in Fant-Ewing Coliseum on Thursday night.
Hunter's memorable score came as ULM's final points of the first half with 40 seconds remaining. Little Rock called a timeout on the ensuing possession and Hunter was recognized with a brief PA announcement and cheer from the crowd.
“I thought about it at the start of this year because my dad had calculated the points,” Hunter said. “But I didn't really think I was going to make it, especially this early in the season with seven more regular-season games left.”
The game began as a defensive struggle, with Little Rock holding just a 6-2 lead at the first quarter's halfway point. ULM eventually found itself down 11-4 at the first intermission. The Trojans scored 11 of the first 16 points in the following stanza to take a 22-9 lead.
“As we have been talking about all week, it doesn't have to be pretty,” head coach Jeff Dow said. “If we can just get five more boards and hold them to five fewer, maybe the score is 47-45. It's not pretty to watch, but we can at least give ourselves a chance.”
Following the Game
Live Stats: ULM.StatBroadcast.com
Radio: 1680 AM
Live Video: Warhawks All-Access
Twitter: @ULM_WBB
