MONROE, La. – Jasmine Thomas and Simone Fields combined to score 25 points to lead Louisiana-Lafayette to a 76-48 win over ULM Saturday (Feb. 3) in Fant-Ewing Coliseum. The Ragin' Cajuns outscored ULM, 63-33, over the last 30 minutes.
 
There were two ties and five lead changes in the first quarter. A 3-pointer from Nekia Jones gave ULL an 11-7 lead with 5:29 left. Jessica Harris scored on a layup and Arsula Clark drove the right baseline for a basket and completed the three-point play as ULM regained the lead at 12-11 with 4:41 remaining. Whitney Goins buried a 3-pointer from the left wing to give the Warhawks a 15-13 advantage with 2:38 on the clock. The teams went a combined 0-for-7 from the field over the next two minutes.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns took the lead for good at 19-17 on a jumper by Fields from the left elbow of the lane with 7:48 remaining in the second quarter. Trailing by six, ULM put together a 6-2 spurt and pulled to within 25-23 as Clark drove the right baseline for a layup with 3:48 left. Skyler Goodwin's three-point play sparked an 11-3 run as ULL moved out to a 36-26 lead on Troi Swain's 3-pointer from the left corner. The Warhawks trimmed their halftime deficit to eight at 36-28 on a Harris jumper from the right baseline with 15 seconds to play in the period.
 
ULL (11-11, 6-4 Sun Belt) outscored ULM, 20-15, in the third quarter to extend its lead to 13 at 56-43 and broke the game open with a 20-5 run in the fourth quarter. The Warhawks went 2-of-15 from the field in the final period, including 0-for-4 from 3-point range, and committed four turnovers.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns shot 53 percent from the field (29-of-55), including 60 percent (15-of-25) in the second half. By comparison, ULM (4-17, 1-9) hit 32 percent (20-62) of its shots from the floor, including just 26 percent (9-of-35) in the second half. The Warhawks made 1-of-11 3-point field-goal attempts in the second half.
 
"We talked about the importance second-chance points at halftime," ULM head basketball coach Jeff Dow said. "We were down eight points at halftime and had only one player (Jessica Harris) with an offensive rebound. We missed 16 shots in the first half, so there were plenty of opportunities. We did a better job on the offensive glass in the second half because we missed a lot of shots.
 
"There's a reason Lafayette has won 20 games the last three years, but we felt this was a winnable game. We were down eight points midway through the third quarter but got outscored significantly in the fourth quarter. We simply played poor defense. Credit Lafayette for making shots, but anytime you allow an opponent to shoot better than 50 percent in three of the four quarters, that falls on us.
 
"We've been in that situation before but dug down and found a way not to let the game slip away," Dow continued. "I was disappointed in the body language and not impressed with our overall effort, especially in the second half. We struggled offensively, missed a lot of shots and allowed it to negatively impact other aspects of our game."
 
Thomas played a solid all-around game for ULL, finishing with 13 points, seven assists and five steals. Fields added 12 points, connecting on 6-of-9 field-goal attempts.
 
ULM got 12 points from Harris and 11 from Clark.
 
The Warhawks continue Sun Belt play next week with road games at Georgia Southern (Thursday, Feb. 8 at 4 p.m.) and Georgia State (Saturday, Feb. 10 at 11 a.m.).