It was quite the home debut for Tiara Malone, Amber Thompson, and the ULM women's basketball team.

Malone poured in a career-high 24 points on 8-for-12 shooting (4-for-7 3-point shooting), while Thompson added 17 points, six assists and five rebounds, as the Warhawks rode a strong offensive effort to a 93-62 rout of LSU-Alexandria on Field Trip Day Thursday morning and afternoon at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

Malone, a redshirt freshman, sat out last season after suffering a knee injury in preseason practice. It was just her second career game for ULM after logging six points Sunday at Texas Tech.

"That's quite a debut for your home opener," head coach Jeff Dow said. "Obviously, we were really looking forward to having Tiara last year, went down with the ACL injury in the preseason. Her first game as a Warhawk in Fant-Ewing, for her to score 24, was really encouraging."

Malone's four three-pointers led a Warhawk team that canned 15 treys on the day.

"We're going to need that," Dow said. "We know we don't have tremendous depth at three-point shooter. Everything we can scratch out is certainly going to be helpful. I thought she gave us a lot of good energy off the bench."

Meanwhile, Thompson, a transfer from Walters State (Tenn.) Community College, had a strong home debut as well.

"I know she was upset with herself," Dow said. "She picked up those two fouls in the first half. Typically, if we can get away with it, I usually sit kids if they have two fouls in the first half, just so you don't risk picking up a third. I know she was disappointed with that. But, I thought she came out ready to play to start the second half, and gave us a lot of energy, making plays on the defensive end, kept driving it hard to the basket. Really excited for a couple of new players to come out in their home debut and have that type of game."

But it was far from Malone and Thompson having the only impact on the game. Five different Warhawks scored in double figures. Destini Lunsford added 12 points, Logan Oestreich chipped in 11, and Whitney Goins tallied 10. Jamie Means just missed her first career double figure game with 9 points.

"I thought we scored in a variety of ways," Dow said. "We weren't dependent on just pounding it inside. I thought Jamie Means was really effective flying around on both ends of the floor, was a presence at the rim offensively, but also got her hands on a lot of balls defensively, blocking shots and forcing some turnovers. We were getting the drives. We always use the phrase, 'get downhill.' I remember in the first half, Destini Lunsford getting an and-one, driving it hard to the rim. Some of that was fueled by our defense, in terms of the shots we were getting at the rim."

The Warhawks hit 15 three-pointers in the game, with six different players connecting on at least two three-pointers.

"I thought kids were stepping up, shooting the in-rhythm three," Dow said. "It wasn't a one woman or two woman show by any means."

Dow said the defensive effort was also strong, limiting LSU-A to 25 first half points and no three-pointers at the break.

"In the first half, we did a phenomenal job of defending the 3-point line," Dow said. "They were 0-of-9. They came in averaging 25 attempts a game, they had several players that were in the high 30s and even 40s in 3-point field goal percentage. That was good to see us execute the game plan."

The Warhawks slowly built a 21-13 lead at the end of the first quarter, and led 38-25 at halftime. The Warhawks took any doubt out of the game in the third quarter, rolling to a 33-10 advantage in the frame to blow the game open, leading by as much as 39 points in front of a crowd of 1,313, including many elementary and high school students on Field Trip Day.

"Everybody likes to hear the roar of the crowd," Dow said. "To have the youth in this area show up as they did, and extremely vocal throughout the game. I know there was some nerves for our kids early, but I thought we settled down pretty quickly."

ULM shot 44.9 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point range, while outrebounding the Generals 45-36. ULM had 22 assists to 16 turnovers.

The Warhawks return to Fant-Ewing Coliseum on Sunday to host McNeese State. Tip-off is at 2 p.m. Links to live video and stats are available on ulmwarhawks.com.