MONROE, La. – ULM trailed hot-shooting Northwestern State by as many as 17 points in the first half Thursday, Nov. 21 and never recovered in a 76-61 loss in Fant-Ewing Coliseum. NSU got balanced scoring from its lineup, with four of its five starters posting double figures and accounting for 57 points.
 
The Demons (1-4) hit their first four field-goal attempts and jumped out to a 7-0 lead. ULM lost its most physical front-court player when Travis Munnings went to bench after being whistled for his third foul at the 17:12 mark. NSU put together a 17-5 run and built a 17-point lead at 26-9 on a layup by C.J. Jones with 11:45 remaining in the first half. ULM struggled on both ends of the floor and failed to cut its deficit to single digits for the remainder of the game. The Demons connected on 14 of their first 22 field-goal attempts (64 percent) and finished the half hitting at a 52-percent clip (17-of-33). Ishmael Lane and Jalan West (10 points each) combined for 20 first-half points as NSU took a 48-35 lead to the locker room.
 
NSU took its largest lead at 76-54 on West's three-pointer with 3:53 left in the second half. The Warhawks committed 10 second-half turnovers and shot just 36 percent (10-of-28) from the floor after the intermission.
 
"Give Northwestern State a ton of credit; they really took the fight to us tonight," ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "I'm disappointed in our competitive fight. We didn't match their toughness or aggressiveness. They played like a team that hadn't won a game. They played the game with a sense of urgency. They got all the 50/50 balls.
 
"Our plan was to play the game at the rim; drive it and take it inside to score. We never really established anything inside and instead shot a bunch of threes. We went to the free-throw line only three times in the first half. We're a good perimeter team, but we have to find ways to score points in the paint.
 
"Division I games are very hard to win, and sometimes, it takes a loss to learn a valuable lesson," Richard continued. "I'm competitive and don't like to lose, but maybe we can benefit from this loss moving forward. We'll watch the film and get back to work tomorrow."
 
Lane scored a game-high 17 points for the Demons, hitting 8-of-12 shots from the floor, while West made 4-of-8 three-pointers and finished with 16 points. NSU also got 13 points from Iziahiah Sweeney and 11 from Devonte Hall. The Demons outscored the Warhawks in the paint, 38-26, and outrebounded ULM, 37-32.
 
Sam McDaniel, who scored 12 of his team-high 15 points in the first half, became the only ULM player to reach double figures.
 
ULM (1-3) continues its four-game homestand against Rust College on Sunday, Nov. 26 at 2 p.m. in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.