MONROE, La. – Four Warhawks reached double figures in scoring, and the ULM women's basketball team ended its season with an 82-68 win over Georgia State on Saturday afternoon.
“I'm certainly excited for our seniors to go out like that,” head coach Jeff Dow said. “They were going to start playing full court and we had the double-digit lead. I told our team that if we just kept defending and rebounding, things would take care of themselves.”
The game began with Aundrea Davis taking the tip-off and tossing it out-of-bounds to her sister, Adriane, courtside and promptly walking off the floor to an ovation. Davis tore her ACL and meniscus on Feb. 18 at Texas State.
“It meant so much to me that I was going to be able to start and put on my uniform on the home floor,” Davis said. “Words can't describe how much it meant to me for my coaches to let me do that.”
The Panthers (10-19, 5-15 SBC) went on a 12-2 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters, getting within 58-54 before ULM called a timeout with 6:32 left. Lauren Marker, a walk-on in the fall, made her biggest shot of the season with a triple that put ULM ahead by seven again.
The Warhawks went up by a dozen with 3:45 left after Alayshia Hunter hit a jumper.
There were nine lead changes in the first half, with the last coming on Daja Chase's jumper at the with 1:51 left before intermission. She also added two free-throws on the next Warhawk possession.
Chelsea Tieuel upped the Warhawks' lead midway through the third quarter. Her deep three-pointer from the top of the key and fastbreak, pull-up jumper over a minute's time were her first field goals of the game and made it a 44-36 contest. Hunter also added two makes for a 10-point ULM advantage.
“I'm just trying to hold tears back,” Hunter said. “I'm really gonna miss it.”
The Warhawks (12-17, 6-14 SBC) took their first 14-point lead of the day when Ashley Aune knocked a free-throw down with 1:43 left in the third.
“It went faster than I realized going through it,” Aune said. “It still hasn't hit me, and probably won't for a while. I'll probably help little kids and play some intramurals [at pharmacy school].”
Inside (and beyond) the Box Score
-ULM got its first win in five all-time tries against Georgia State.
-The Warhawks upped their scoring in every quarter (13-19-24-26).
-The 82 points were the team's most in a Sun Belt game since defeating Texas State 90-84 to end the 2014-15 season.
-ULM had 25 free-throw makes in 30 attempts, its most since the Nov. 29 win at Southeastern Louisiana (28-for-34).
-The team's 43.8 percent clip from behind the arc (7-for-16) was also its best since that Nov. 29 game.
-ULM has won six of its last seven home finales.
-Lauren Marker had career-highs in field goals (2) and points (8). It was just her third double-digit minute game.
-Daja Chase had a career-high 19 points and committed just one turnover in 37 minutes. She has also made 16 of her last 18 free-throw attempts after being perfect on six Saturday. Chase also made her third career three-pointer.
-Chase scored double-digit points each of the last two games coming into Saturday, and had tied a career-high with 16 on Feb. 27 at Troy.
-Alayshia Hunter had her 10th 20-point game this season and sixth double-double.
-Andreanna Jackson's 10 points and career-high 10 rebounds gave her first double-double.
