Monroe, La. - Arsula Clark had the big plays when ULM needed them late. Tiara Malone kept ULM in the game to give them a chance down the stretch.
Clark's final big play of the night had her catch an inbound pass from Whitney Goins above the arc with 4.9 seconds to play. Clark attacked the right side of the lane, spun, and got free to the right block for the game-winning layup as time expired, lifting ULM to a 58-57 win over Georgia Southern Thursday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
Clark set up the game-winning play by deflecting a Georgia Southern inbound pass intended for Tatum Barber. As the two fell to the corner and the ball went out of bounds, officials initially indicated the Eagles had retained possession. But an official review reversed the call, giving the ball to ULM.
"We kind of took advantage of the video review," head coach Jeff Dow said. "We were feeling extremely confident that that ball was deflected off them and we were going to have the last possession. I didn't have to burn a timeout. Essentially we were going to put the ball in Arsula's hands, try to get her going downhill."
Dow said the final sequence goes back to a learning experience nearly one month ago at Fant-Ewing, against Nicholls State.
"If you remember the Nicholls State game, late, very similar, down one, late shot clock, the ball in her hands, and passed it off to somebody that didn't have a great look," Dow said. "I think she was definitely going to be the one that was going to make something happen. Even though they rotated two or three defenders at her, she has that ability to split defenders with the little spin move that she had there. Good to see her learn something from that game a month ago and come up with a big finish there."
On a night where ULM struggled to string points together, redshirt freshman Malone had the big night to keep the Warhawks in the game, matching a career-high with 24 points on 6-of-10 3-point shooting.
"Tiara Malone was outstanding," Dow said. "To her credit, she goes from not playing Saturday afternoon, and has kept putting in work, she comes out and goes 6-of-10 from three, and clearly we needed every one of those. And also zero turnovers. I thought that was an underrated stat for a couple of our kids, Tiara in particular."
For most of the night, Georgia Southern maintained a lead. The two sides traded the lead nine times in the opening quarter and 10 times in the first 12 minutes of the game. Georgia Southern used a 9-0 run early in the second quarter to build some separation, leading by as much as six in the quarter and by five at halftime, 27-22.
The Eagles would push the lead to 10 in the third quarter, but ULM would cut the deficit in half by the end of the frame, capping the quarter on a 3-pointer from Malone, her fourth trey of the night.
"It felt like we did just enough to hang around," Dow said. "It never felt like we went on a run at any point. But we never let it get away from us. Obviously, that gave us a chance."
Georgia Southern pushed the lead to nine early in the fourth quarter, but Malone hit a layup and Goins added a jumper to get back within five at 49-44 with 6:09 to go. After a layup by Alisha Owens, ULM went on its largest run of the night, a 5-0 spurt, thanks to a three from Malone and a baseline jumper from Jamie Means to get within two at 51-49 with 3:43 remaining. After a baseline answer from Tatum Barber, ULM had its second 5-0 spurt. First, Malone buried her sixth and final trey of the night to cut the gap to one at 53-52. Then, Clark made her first of three big plays in the final frame, grabbing a steal as the Eagles were setting up their offense on the ensuing possession and taking it the other way for the first lead since early in the second quarter at 54-53 with 2:20 to go. From there, the lead would change hands five more times, with Owens' layup with 24 seconds left giving Georgia Southern its last lead at 57-56, and setting up Clark's game-winner.
"We had a couple games like that earlier this year, McNeese State comes to mind, where we didn't play well for what felt like about 35 minutes, but they never pulled away," Dow said. "We did just enough at the end. As a coach, you're frustrated because you want to play better than that. You want to execute on both ends of the floor better than that. But we did just enough to keep it close and to give ourselves a chance in the last couple of minutes. It's hopefully something we learned from that. Clearly we can't make a habit of doing that type of thing."
In addition to Malone's 24 points, Amber Thompson added 12 points and Clark had eight. Owens scored a career-high 16 for Georgia Southern, while Alexis Brown chipped in 12 and Amira Atwater had 10.
ULM shot 38.1 percent (24-of-63) from the field and 30.8 percent (8-of-26) from 3-point range. Jamie Means made both of ULM's only free throw attempts of the night. Georgia Southern shot 46.0 percent (23-of-50) from the floor and 33.3 percent (4-of-12) from three. The Eagles made all seven of their free throws. Georgia Southern out-rebounded ULM 33-31.
The Warhawks are back at Fant-Ewing Coliseum on Saturday when they host Georgia State at noon. The first 300 fans will receive a voucher for a free hot dog. Tickets are available by calling 318-342-HAWK or by visiting ULMWarhawks.com. Links to live video and radio streams, as well as live stats, are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
