New Orleans, La. - The ULM women's basketball scored the first nine points of the game and never relinquished the lead, pulling away in the final five minutes to top New Orleans 57-44 on Sunday afternoon at Lakefront Arena.
The Warhawks won a road game for the first time since beating Houston Baptist on Dec. 21, 2016, snapping a skid of 26 straight road losses.
"Really pleased to find a way to get a win in spite of some tough stretches offensively," said head coach Jeff Dow. "It's always good to have the lead from start to finish which we did by scoring on our first possession and getting off to a quick 9-0 lead."
Arsula Clark opened the game with a jumper for a 2-0 lead, and was followed by a three-pointer from Whitney Goins, a steal and layup from Amber Thompson, and then another bucket from Clark to open the 9-0 advantage. The Privateers closed within five late in the first quarter before Destini Lunsford drained her first three-pointer of the game to put the Warhawks up 18-10 after a quarter.
Clark reached a dozen points with a jumper to push the Warhawk lead to double figures for the first time at 20-10 with 7:42 left in the first half. The Warhawks would take their largest lead of the first half on two Thompson free throws to push the lead to 25-14 with 5:13 to go before the break. UNO would cut the deficit to seven at halftime, 29-22.
UNO opened the second half strong. The Privateers scored the first four points on layups from Jada Duncantell and Kayla Thomas to cut the deficit to 29-26 just over a minute into the half. Neither team would score for nearly four minutes when Lunsford ended the drought for ULM with a layup to push the lead back to six at 31-26. A three-pointer by Traya Bruce brought UNO back within two at 31-29, but the Warhawks closed the quarter with a lay-up from Diamond Brooks and a three-pointer by Tiara Malone to push the lead back to seven at 36-29 at the end of the third quarter.
"We were obviously scuffling a bit offensively in the second and third quarters, but we defended well enough that they were only able to cut into our lead by one point," Dow said.
The Warhawks resumed a double-digit lead to open the fourth quarter on a three from Logan Oestreich with 9:46 to play. UNO would slowly chip away at the gap, getting as close as five at 45-40 with 2:55 remaining. However, the Warhawks answered on the next possession on a three from Lunsford to push the lead back to eight. Clark hit a layup with 1:27 left to push the lead back to 10 as the Warhawks hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Clark broke the 20-point mark for the second straight game with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting and a 5-of-6 effort at the free throw line. Lunsford tallied a career-high for the third straight game, finishing with 16 points after connecting on three three-pointers and pulling in six rebounds. Shania Woods led UNO with 13 points, while Thomas had 12 points.
"This was a true team win," Dow said. "We had three different players take a charge (Lunsford, Sheniqua Coatney, Breauna DeLon) and multiple players that came off the bench to give us a lift when we needed it."
ULM shot just 34.6 percent from the floor, but connected on six three-pointers and finished 15-of-20 from the free throw line. The Warhawks limited UNO to 30.0 percent shooting and 2-of-11 from three-point range. The Privateers connected on 12-of-21 free throws. The Warhawks had a slight edge in rebounds, 39-38.
"We're constantly preaching that you're going to have games where you're struggling to score, but you can still find a way to get it done if you defend and rebound," Dow said. "Clearly, we defended by holding them to 44 points and 30 percent from the field on their home floor. Our rebounding was much better in the second half. We were outscored 8-0 in second chance points in the first half but we come up with several key offensive boards in the second half to win that category seven to six."
ULM heads back on the road with a 2 p.m. tip-off on Sunday in Nachitoches against Northwestern State. Links to live coverage of the game, including live stats, are available on ulmwarhawks.com.
