MONROE, La. – Improving to 12-0 at home this season, the ULM men's basketball program won its eighth-consecutive game overall and 12th of its last 13 with an 83-76 victory over Georgia Southern on Thursday at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
GSO (14-15, 10-9 SBC) scored the first basket of the game on a three-pointer, but the Warhawks (18-12, 14-5 SBC) quickly responded with a 10-0 run and never trailed again.
ULM finished on top despite the Eagles shooting 16-30 (.533) from three-point range. However, GSO was held to a 23-60 (.383) mark overall, while the Warhawks went 33-61 (.541) from the field.
Senior Justin Roberson registered a game-high 18 points. Senior Majok Deng finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while senior DeMondre Harvey ended with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Nick Coppola tallied nine points, seven assists, five rebounds and just one turnover in 38 minutes.
All seven ULM student-athletes that played scored at least seven points as freshman Travis Munnings notched nine, senior Jamaal Samuel eight and senior Mack Foster seven.
GSO was led by Mike Hughes' 24 points, including five three-pointers. Tookie Brown recorded 17 points, Ike Smith 14 and Jake Allsmiller 12.
The Eagles struck first with a three-pointer, but the Warhawks responded with a 10-0 run as four different players scored at the 16:06 mark. ULM extended the lead to 20-4 after Foster drilled a three-pointer and then scored on a back-door lay-in with 11:36 remaining.
Still up 29-13, the Eagles went on a 12-2 spurt which included a trio of three-pointers to cut the deficit to 31-25 with 2:06 to go. After a tip-in by Foster, GSO's Hughes hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds as the Warhawks led 33-28 at the half.
On top 35-30 early in the second half, the Warhawks went on an 8-0 run which included a pair of inside baskets by Harvey to take a 43-30 advantage with 16:31 left.
The Eagles slowly chipped away to get it back into single-figures, 54-45, but ULM responded with a key 9-0 spurt, capped by another bucket inside by Harvey to make it a 63-45 game with 8:35 remaining.
GSO did not go down without a fight. It trailed 76-61 with 3:25 left when it hit a pair of three-pointers to spark an 8-0 run to make it a 76-71 game at the 1:52 mark. Lay-ups by Roberson and Coppola, and a pair of free throws by Deng put it away in the end.
The Warhawks will wrap-up the regular season on Saturday when they host Georgia State on Senior Day at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Seniors Harvey, Foster, Samuel, Deng and Roberson will be honored before the game.
NOTES
- ULM improved to 11-4 all-time against Georgia Southern and 6-1 at home
- The Warhawks are now 12-0 (9-0 SBC) at home this season, 26-4 over the last two seasons and 416-173 all-time in Fant-Ewing Coliseum
- The eight-game winning streak is ULM's longest in 17 seasons. The Warhawks entered the game with the fifth-longest active winning streak in the nation. ULM has won 12 of its last 13 since switching its starting lineup to Coppola, Roberson, Deng, Samuel and Harvey
- The Warhawks improved to 28-11 SBC over the last two years which is best in the league by three and a half games
- ULM improved to 11-0 in conference play when it scores at least 70 points, 9-0 when it shoots over 50 percent from the field and 8-0 when it has more points in the paint
- ULM dominated GSO in the paint, 44-14. It also held edges of 16-6 in points off turnovers, 15-8 in second chance points and 16-7 in points off the bench
- Deng entered the game ranking third in the league in scoring and netted at least 13 points for the 21st time in his last 23 outings. He etched his 14th career double-double and sixth this season. It was also his 49th career double-figure scoring game and 24th this year. With three blocks in the game, Deng upped his career total to 96 and needs three more to move into fourth all-time in ULM history and catch Terry Martin
- Harvey turned in his fifth career double-double and second this season. It was also his 12th career double-figure scoring game and eighth this year. Harvey entered the game shooting .545 from the field and went 7-10 (.700) in the contest. His seven made field goals matched a career-high previously set against Canisius in a triple overtime game on Dec. 22, 2015
- Roberson totaled his 36th career double-digit scoring game and 19th this year. He went 7-12 from the field and 3-3 from the free throw line. He's scored in double-figures in eight of the last nine games
- With seven assists in the game, Coppola now has 384 in his career and needs 14 more to catch Larry Saulters for the all-time lead at ULM. He submitted a 7:1 assist:turnover ratio in the contest and went 4-8 shooting from the field
- Munnings entered the game ranked fourth in the SBC in field goal percentage (.514) and went 3-5 in the game
- With Deng and Harvey both posting double-doubles, ULM now has 16 total on the season from five different student-athletes
- The Warhawks clinched a double-bye into the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Championships and will play on Saturday, March 12 at 3:30 p.m. as the No. 2 seed against an opponent to be determined
- The Warhawks secured back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1992-93, 93-94. They also solidified back-to-back winning seasons in league play for the first time since 1998-99, 99-00
- ULM will finish ahead of where it was projected in the SBC Preseason Poll for the third year in a row. The Warhawks were picked to finish third this year
- The Warhawks clinched their 40th winning season in school history. ULM is in its 65th season at the Division I level
Quoting ULM head coach Keith Richard
Opening Statement
“Everyone is exhausted – coaches, players, our radio man and probably some fans. It was a very exhausting win. I just told our team that I thought we played really, really hard in this game. We played hard on the defensive- end and pushed the ball on the break. We were able to break the press and played with a lot of energy out there. I just wish we would have played a little smarter in the last five minutes. It doesn't ruin it for me, because at this time of the year it's about wins, but I want us to be a smarter team. I don't want to foul so much, I want to make free throws and I don't want to turn the ball over. This should have been a double-digit win. We didn't handle the last five minutes very well. But we did do enough to win and played extremely hard and it's a good win against a good team.”
On GSO's three-point shooting
“We knew coming into the game, and we embraced at practice, that they may make a lot of threes. They shoot a lot of threes, so they are going to make some. We just didn't want to give them lay-ups, in addition to threes. If you look inside the three-point line, they only shot 38 percent for the game. They made 16 threes which makes you nervous, but at Georgia Southern we were giving up both lay-ups and threes which is a big reason why we lost. Our kids followed the plan, and their guys hit some tough, contested shots from long-range. We just had to make sure we were playing good offense and sticking to the plan which we did in the second half.”
On ULM's big edge in the paint
“DeMondre Harvey turned the game back for us in the second half. I took him out with two fouls in the first half and it turned back their way. When I put him back in to begin the second, it turned back our way. He was giving us some post-presence and made plays around the rim. We didn't have him in the last quarter of the first half and that hurt. Majok also had a big second half, but I'm not sure that DeMondre wasn't the player of the game.”
On Majok Deng
“Majok did a good job tonight. He only had two points at halftime and we talked to him about how to play against their defense. It was different than what we play against normally and it's caused some trouble for us in the past. We made some adjustments and it made the difference.”
