JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Jacksonville State opened the second half with a 13-0 run to turn a two-point halftime deficit into an 11-point lead and cruised to a 75-56 victory over ULM Saturday, Dec. 9 at Pete Mathews Coliseum. The Warhawks went scoreless for the first 5:02 of the second half.
 
The first half featured six ties and nine lead changes, but ULM led for nearly 14 minutes. The Warhawks put together an 8-0 spurt late in the first half and took a 30-22 lead on a three-pointer from Travis Munnings with 4:26 left. The Gamecocks made five-straight field-goal attempts during an 11-2 run and regained the lead at 33-32 on a layup by Tyrik Edwards with 1:06 remaining in the opening half. Marvin Jean-Pierre scored on a drive down the right side of the lane and added a free throw to complete a three-point play with 25 seconds left to send ULM to the locker room with a 35-33 half-time advantage. The Warhawks scored 16 points off JSU's nine first-half turnovers.
 
Jamall Gregory (six points) and Christian Cunningham (four points) combined for 10 points during Jacksonville State's decisive 13-0 run to open the second half. Gregory's jumper gave the Gamecocks a 46-35 lead with 15:34 remaining in the second half. ULM (3-5) misfired on its first five field-goal attempts and committed five turnovers during that stretch.
 
"I thought our guys played really well in the first half," ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "Although we led by two points at halftime, I was concerned because everything was really hard for us on both ends of the floor. At halftime, I stressed the importance of competing the first five minutes of the second half, but our guys didn't really do that. I was really disappointed in our second-half performance, but the game turned in those first five minutes. We were in trouble before the first media timeout.
 
"We had worked on managing Jacksonville State's three-quarter press but not the full-court press. Our guards didn't handle it well and panicked a little bit."
 
Jean-Pierre buried a 3-pointer from the left baseline as the Warhawks pulled to within eight at 46-38 with 14:57 left. After Jason Burrell hit a pair of free throws to push JSU's lead back to double digits at 48-38, another jumper by Jean-Pierre cut the deficit to 48-40, but ULM failed to close the margin any further. Thanks to a 12-3 spurt, the Gamecocks extended their lead to 19 at 69-50 on Cunningham's layup with 4:30 to play in the game.
 
Four Gamecocks, including three starters, scored in double figures, with Malcolm Drumwright hitting 4-of-7 three-point field-goal attempts en route to a game-high 18 points. JSU got 14 points from Gregory and 12 from Marlon Hunter, while Cunningham came off the bench to post a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.  
 
Jacksonville State (7-2) shot 58 percent (29-of-50) from the field and outrebounded the Warhawks, 37-24.
 
Sam McDaniel paced ULM with 16 points while Jean-Pierre finished with 11.
 
The Warhawks hit 36 percent (21-of-58) of their field-goal attempts, including just 31 percent (8-of-26) in the second half. ULM also committed nine of its 13 turnovers in the second half.
 
"We couldn't dig ourselves out of the hole because we didn't score the ball well in the second half," Richard said. "Travis (Munnings) and Sam (McDaniel) struggled against Jacksonville State's physical front line, shooting a combined 8-for-27 from the field. It's hard for us to win without those guys being in the offensive flow. We need to find ways to put Travis and Sam in better positions to score against longer, physical athletes.
 
"These are all things we can learn from. It will be great to get back home to close out our non-conference schedule. I'm not going to let one poor half distract from what we've done the last several weeks. We just need to get back to work tomorrow."
 
ULM closes out its non-conference schedule with a three-game homestand, beginning Tuesday, Dec. 12 against Grambling at 7 p.m. in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.