THE BASICS
Score: Texas State 63, ULM 50
Teams: ULM (4-13, 1-5 SBC)
Texas State (8-9, 3-3 SBC)
Location: San Marcos, Texas (Strahan Coliseum)
San Marcos, Texas - The ULM women's basketball team got off to a slow start on Thursday night and was dealt a 50-63 loss to Texas State in Strahan Coliseum in Sun Belt Conference action.
TURNING POINT
Texas State took an early 12-3 lead, and allowed the Warhawks only total 16 points in the first half as the Bobcats extended their lead to as much as 22.
NOTABLES
-Alexis Collins topped the Warhawks offense with a team-best 15 points on the night, shooting 5-of-18 from the floor, including 4-of-7 from the stripe. The freshman filled out her stat line with six rebounds (five defensive), four assists and one steal.
-Gabriella Cortez also landed in double digits, finishing with with 14-points as she shot 3-of-5 from the floor and 7-of-9 from the line. The junior also grabbed five rebounds (four defensive), had one block and one steal.
-The Warhawks closed the gap to as little as 10 in the second half, outscoring the Bobcats 18-15 in the third frame. ULM shot its highest shooting percentage in the third quarter at 55.6 percent (5-of-9). The Warhawks outscored the Bobcats in second chance points with 12 compared to Texas State's four.
-The Bobcats' Toshia Leavitt had the game-high 19 points as the only Texas State player in double digits, going 6-of-12 from the floor. Leavitt also grabbed four rebounds (three defensive), three assists and had two steals.
FROM COACH DOW
What we learned: I think the lesson to be learned from this game is that we can't play in spurts, or in some cases we play a really good second half with a poor first half. We spot the opponent too many big leads. Arguably we outplayed them in the second half, but we dug ourselves too big of a hole.
About the effort: I was proud of the effort that we had in the second half. We didn't give in by any means, but we just can't play in spurts. We talked in the locker room about if we're going to struggle to score the way we did in the first half and scoring only 16 points, somehow, some way you have to keep them within four or five points.
Statistically speaking: If you look at their overall shooting numbers in the first half, they shot 32 percent and for the game we shot 30 percent. Probably eight times out of 10 if you hold somebody to that low of a percentage you should find a way to win the game, but if you give up 21 offensive rebounds and commit 10 more turnovers than the opponents, then obviously it makes it more of a challenge to win that game. The biggest stat that was the killer was points off turnovers. We got outscored by 14 points in that category alone and in the end lost by 13.
About the result: We were disappointed in the result. Obviously with them being only one game ahead of us in the standings, we looked at this as a pivotal game.
What we need to do: We just can't get off to these slow starts and we have to shoot it better and take care of the ball.
UP NEXT
-The Warhawks will take a short trip to Arlington, Texas, to face UTA on Saturday for a 2:00 p.m. game that will be broadcast on ESPN3.
