MONROE, La. – In a game that saw many momentum flips over the last five minutes and overtime, the ULM men's basketball program used a gritty, spirited effort to defeat Arkansas State, 78-73 on Saturday at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
As a result, ULM (13-12, 9-5 SBC) improved to 11-0 (8-0 SBC) at home this season.
The Warhawks led by eight with just under six minutes left when the Red Wolves (11-14, 7-7 SBC) stormed back with a big 11-1 run to take the lead, 67-65 with 1:22 left. Senior Justin Roberson then got fouled on the other end and made both free throws to even the score, 67-67 with 1:08 remaining.
On ASU's final possession, Sean Gardner shot a contested three-pointer that was rebounded by senior Jamaal Samuel with three seconds left. After he called timeout, junior Nick Coppola dribbled three-quarters court but his shot fell short to send it to overtime.
In extra time, the Red Wolves struck first with a jumper by Devin Carter, but it was quickly equaled out by a layup from Roberson. ULM went up by four with 57 seconds left after a fast-break layup Coppola and a pair of free throws by senior Majok Deng.
ASU made one last push after a layup by Frederic Dure cut the deficit to 73-71 with 48 seconds remaining, but a jumper by Samuel and a pair of free throws by Roberson sealed it with a 77-71 lead.
Deng led all scorers with a game-high 27 points and also pulled down six rebounds in 42 minutes. Roberson etched 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal in 40 minutes.
Also in double-figures, Samuel tallied 13 points and seven rebounds in a career-high 41 minutes. Coppola played all 45 minutes and finished with seven assists and just one turnover.
The Red Wolves were led by Anthony Livingston's 23 points and 11 rebounds. Gardner pitched in with 17 points, Dure 13 and Devin Carter 12.
The Warhawks trailed 15-12 in the first half when Deng hit a pair of three-pointers and Roberson followed with a long-range shot to them on top, 21-15 at the 9:03 mark. The Red Wolves scored the next four points to make it a 21-19 game with 7:41 remaining.
Still up 25-23, ULM used a 6-0 spurt capped by a three-pointer by Coppola to take a 31-23 advantage with 4:32 left. Back-to-back three-pointers by freshman Travis Munnings extended the edge to 37-26 with 3:12 to go.
ASU scored the final 11 points of the half which included eight from Carter and a three-pointer at the buzzer by Dure to tie the game, 37-37. It marked the first time this season that ULM had a tied score at half.
The Warhawks opened the second half on a 9-0 run which included four points from Roberson, a three-pointer by Deng and a dunk by Harvey to go up 46-37 at the 15:24 mark. ASU quickly answered with a 7-0 run as ULM called timeout leading 46-44 with 14:06 remaining. After a three-pointer by Samuel, the Red Wolves scored the next five points to tie the game, 49-49 with 12:04 left.
Still tied at 51, Roberson and Deng drilled three-pointers to put ULM back on top, 57-51 at the 10-minute mark. A three-pointer by Samuel extended the lead to 60-52 with 8:10 remaining.
The game featured 11 ties and five lead changes.
Up next, the Warhawks will begin a four-game road swing on Thursday when they head to Texas State for a 7:30 p.m. start. ULM won the first meeting between the two teams this season, 73-59 at home on Jan. 30.
NOTES
-The Warhawks honored their 1985-86 NCAA Tournament team at halftime for their 30th anniversary. ULM won both the Southland Conference Regular Season and Postseason titles that year
- ULM improved to 25-4 (.862) at home over the last two seasons and 415-173 all-time in Fant-Ewing Coliseum
- The Warhawks are now 19-8 all-time at home against Arkansas State and have won the last three meetings in Monroe. Both games this season went to overtime as the Red Wolves took a 68-65 decision on Jan. 7 in Jonesboro, Ark.
- ULM committed just six turnovers in the game, a season-low. It also dished out 16 assists and entered the game ranking third in assist:turnover ratio (1.1). ULM outscored ASU 15-8 in points off turnovers
- The Warhawks did not allow ASU to score a single point off the bench
- ULM has won seven of its eight games since switching its starting lineup to Coppola, Roberson, Deng, Samuel and Harvey
- The Warhawks hold a 23-11 SBC record over the last two seasons which is tied for the best in the league with UL-Lafayette
- ULM is at least four games over .500 after 14 league games for the second year in a row
- Deng entered the game ranked 36th in the nation in scoring (19.6 ppg) and upped it with his 27-point performance. He's now scored at least 13 points in 17 of his last 18 outings. Deng posted his 12th career 20-plus scoring game and 10th this year. It was also his 45th career double-figure scoring game and 20th this season
- In his last nine games, Roberson has totaled the eight highest scoring games of his career, all of at least 20 points. His two blocks matched a career-high. Roberson reached double-digits in scoring for the 32nd time in his career and 17th time this season
- Samuel has scored in double-figures in six of his last eight games. It marked his 22nd career double-figure scoring game and 14th this season after he drained a trio of three-pointers
- Coppola played at least 40 minutes for the 33rd time in his career. He dished out seven assists and now has 356 in his career. He ranks fourth all-time in ULM history in career assists and needs nine more to catch Bob Carson who distributed 365. Coppola also moved into third all-time in career minutes at ULM with 3,199, surpassing Anthony Jones who logged 3,178
- Munnings went three-for-six from the field and all his makes were three-pointers. Munnings is 6-8 from three-point range over his last three appearances
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“We found a way to win, that's the bottom line. Sometimes late in the year, you just have to find a way to win. We led for pretty much the whole game, lost it, got it back, lost it, got it back, etc. Missed free throws caused blood pressure to be sky-high, but at the end of the day, we found a way to win. I'm not going to beat my team up after this game. I'm not going to say great things or bad things on how we played. I'm just happy that we found a way to win and that's what I told them in the locker room.”
On Majok Deng
“ASU did a better job on him in the second half. They went to a box-and-one for a little while and it was a little tougher to get him shots. We missed some open shots as a team and we could have stretched the lead in the second half, but Arkansas State could say the same thing. When it counted most, Majok helped us, and Justin finally got going a little bit. Jamaal made some big shots, and overall it was an exhausting, tiring win. I knew this was going to be a fist-fight. Anytime you play two good teams back-to-back, and when you're a good team, the second game is always exhausting. It's always a grind. You could tell in overtime there was a lot of exhaustion out there. So that's one of the reasons why I was really happy that we found a way to win.”
On ASU's 11-0 run to end the first half
“That's happened to us a lot this year. We've given up 10-0 or 11-0 runs to give up double-figure leads. It's cost us some games. We were concerned at halftime because of it and we were stagnant offensively. We hit some threes in the first half and then everyone started standing around and only want to shoot threes. It caused us to take some bad shots and ASU was scoring on the other end. We want to make three-point shots but you can't live and die on it. You have to mix in some drives, cuts to the basket and some post-ups.”
On playing against ASU head coach John Brady for the final time here
“He's an excellent coach. They work hard over there. His team was well-prepared. We've known each other for 40 years. We went to dinner last night and even sat together before the game in my office for an hour, talking and laughing. It takes two friends to be able to do that. I knew his team was going to be well-prepared and play well and I think he thought the same about us. This is two overtime games we've had with them so it shows how evenly matched we are in this league.”
On seeing the 1985-86 team back on the court
“We had a great reception at Dr. Bruno's house last night and had a lot of laughs and great stories. Some of these guys flew in from all over the country and it was really good to see them. It was great to see the smiles on their faces when they saw each other. Some of these guys hadn't seen anyone in years. It's been a long time for some of these guys and that's what reunions are for. We could have used a couple of those guys tonight on the free throw line. They were a great team, and really the true meaning of a team.”
Quoting senior Justin Roberson
On how big of a win it was for the team
“It was a great win. We're undefeated at home and we'd just like to continue it.”
On what ULM has to do now to get more wins on the road
“We just have to stay positive, have a positive vibe and have great energy on and off the court. We just have to be a team.”
On the biggest key to the win
“The key was driving it and being aggressive off the post. Coach told us that and we hit it hard.”
On what motivated the team going into overtime
“We went to overtime with them at their place, and I think that's what fired us up because we lost the first one. It was a big win for us.”
Quoting senior Jamaal Samuel
On what ULM had to do to pull out this win
“We just tried to strike off the dribble more and get it to Justin who is our best dribbler. We wanted to get him more open looks to penetrate the defense and find guys who could go make a play at the rim.”
On the key to winning in overtime
“We learned from our mistakes from the previous overtime game at Arkansas State so we went into overtime pretty confident. Plus we were at home so we felt confident going into it.”
