NEW ORLEANS – All five starters scored in double-figures for the ULM men's basketball program as it defeated third-seeded UT Arlington, 82-71 in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Championships on Saturday at Lakefront Arena.
The second-seeded Warhawks (20-12, 15-5 SBC) won their 10th straight game and will play in the finals of the SBC Championships for the first time in school history on Sunday at noon on ESPN2. It will take on top-seeded Little Rock (28-4, 17-3 SBC). The teams split the season series, each winning at home.
With six assists in the game, junior Nick Coppola improved his career total to 401, surpassing Larry Saulters who distributed 398 assists and held the title as ULM Assist King for 46 years.
Senior DeMondre Harvey registered a career-high 21 points on a perfect 9-for-9 shooting and also recorded seven rebounds and three blocks. His field goal percentage helped the Warhawks shoot at a .500 (27-54) clip for the game, while UTA (23-10, 13-7 SBC) was limited to a .408 (29-71) clip including .250 (7-28) from long range.
Senior Majok Deng, an All-Conference First-Team honoree and the reigning SBC Student-Athlete of the Week winner, poured in 18 points including a trio of three-pointers and also tallied seven rebounds and a pair of blocks. Senior Justin Roberson, the SBC Defensive Student-Athlete of the Year and All-Conference Second-Team selection, finished with 16 points and matched his career-high with eight assists.
With five three-pointers in the game, senior Jamaal Samuel ended with 15 points. Coppola aided the attack with 10 points.
The Mavs came out of the gates hot and scored the first 12 points after making six of their first eight shots. ULM trailed 14-3 when it went on an 8-0 run which included three-pointers by Coppola and Samuel to make it a 14-11 game at the 12:35 mark.
Three straight baskets inside by Harvey got ULM within one, down 18-17, and the Warhawks took their first lead of the game on a pair of free throws by Roberson with 9:14 remaining. ULM turned it into a 12-0 run as back-to-back three-pointers by Samuel and Roberson helped extend the lead to 27-18 with 7:07 left.
UTA responded with a 7-0 spurt to cut the deficit to 27-24 with 5:48 to go, but Harvey continued to score inside to push the edge back up to 33-26 at the 3:39 mark. The Warhawks scored the final bucket of the half on a jumper by Deng to take a 39-30 advantage into the break.
The Warhawks scored the first five points of the second half after a three-pointer by Roberson and lay-up by Harvey put them in front 44-30 with 17:58 remaining. Back-to-back baskets by UTA made it a 56-46 game at the 11:37 mark.
Still up 65-54, the Warhawks used a 7-0 run, which included a three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Deng, to push the lead up to 72-54 with 5:38 left.
The Mavs made one last push late as they used their press to force turnovers to cut the deficit to 79-79 with 1:15 remaining but could not get it into single-figures.
Jalen Jones led UTA with 19 points and 10 rebounds. All-Conference First-Team selection Erick Neal recorded 17 points and six rebounds, and Kennedy Eubanks tallied 10 points off the bench.
NOTES
- On Sunday, the Warhawks will be playing for their eighth NCAA Tournament bid, ninth tournament championship and 21st championship in school history. They are playing for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1995-96
- ULM posted back-to-back 20-win seasons for just the third time in school history and the first-time since 1989-90, 90-91. It won 24 games last year
- The Warhawks have won 10 games in a row for the first time since 1993-94. It's the third longest active winning streak in the nation and the ninth time in school history that they've won at least 10 straight games
- ULM improved to 50-16 all-time against UTA and won all three meetings this season
- The Warhawks went 13-27 from long-range in the contest. The 13 makes set a school record in an SBC Championships game, surpassing the 10 they made against UL-Lafayette in 2010
- Harvey surpassed his previous career-high of 20 points set against South Alabama at home this season. His nine field goals topped his previous best of seven, set twice. He notched his fourth consecutive double-figure scoring game, 10th this season and 14th in his career. ULM is now 14-1 since inserting him into the starting lineup
- Deng, the 2015-16 SBC scoring champion, has scored at least 13 points in 23 of his last 25 outings. It was his 51st career double-figure scoring game and 26th this season. He's fourth all-time in career blocks with 101 and needs four more to catch Eugene Robinson and move into third
- Samuel becomes just the second Warhawk to ever make at least five three-pointers in an SBC Championships game along with Tony Hooper who did it twice (2007, 2010). It marked his 25th career double-digit scoring game, 17th this season and second in a row. It was also the seventh time this year that he scored at least 15 points
- Roberson entered the game ranked second in the league in steals (1.5 spg) and grabbed two in the game. He posted his 38th career double-figure scoring game, 23rd this season and third in a row. He came into the game ranked third in the league in three-point field goal percentage and went 2-5 (.400) in the contest
- In the ULM career record book, Coppola now ranks first all-time in both assists (399) and minutes per game (35.7 mpg). He logged a game-high 38 minutes in the contest. Coppola netted his 47th career double-figure scoring game and 19th this season
- ULM entered the game ranked first in the league in field goal percentage (.455) and upped it by shooting .500
- The 12-point deficit was ULM's second-largest overcome in a win this season
- Keith Richard has now been a part of seven of ULM's 12 winningest seasons in school history (all of at least 20 wins) as either a head coach, assistant coach, graduate assistant or player
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“I want to congratulate UT Arlington on a great season. It's a hard team to play against. We're fortunate to beat them three times. I thought for 30 minutes of the game we played really well. We were nervous for the first five minutes and that's what happens when you don't have an extra game under your belt like they did. But once we hit a shot we settled into our defense, we played well for 30 minutes. I didn't like the way we played in the last five minutes. But all in all that's a good win against a very good team.”
On being the last team in the country to play a conference tournament game
“We don't play many guys so we kind of enjoyed the week off. I was a little nervous about first game jitters. That's what I was most worried about and it actually showed itself. We were nervous out there. But we made some shots, got the ball inside and started really digging in defensively. We settled into the game.”
Quoting ULM senior DeMondre Harvey
On what was working well for him
“Coach had been getting on me all week about being a big part of this game. My teammates kept talking to me and telling me to bring the energy for them so we could win the game.”
Quoting ULM senior Justin Roberson
On tomorrow's championship game against Little Rock
“We just want to keep our momentum and our confidence up. We're going to bring it for 40 minutes and try to punch our ticket.”
