Monroe, La. - Coastal Carolina outscored the ULM women's basketball team 42-13 over the final 18 minutes, picking up a 79-53 win over the Warhawks Thursday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

For the second straight game, a strong effort over the first 22 minutes had the ULM (7-12 overall, 1-7 Sun Belt Conference) in the lead. However, the final 18 minutes proved to be the team's undoing.

"Defensively, there was never a quarter where we ever really established anything," head coach Jeff Dow said. "The best quarter we had defensively was giving up 17 points. We've proven we're not a team that's going to go out and outscore people. In a game that's in the 70s, we're not wired that way, so we've got to find a way to dig down, get back in transition and get stops as well."

Trailing by two at halftime, 35-33, ULM opened the second half strong. Arsula Clark, who was limited to three points in the first half, scored the team's first eight points of the second half, giving the Warhawks an 8-2 run and a 41-37 lead with 7:27 to go in the quarter.

ULM then went scoreless for the next 6:16, allowing the Chanticleers (10-9, 2-6) to take the lead and build their first double-digit advantage on a 14-0 run, capped on Janae Camp's layup to lead 51-41 with 1:58 remaining in the third quarter. Free throws by Jamie Means at the 1:11 mark ended the run, but Camp hit a free throw and Caitlyn Roche closed the quarter with a deep 3-pointer to extend the Coastal lead to 55-43.

In the final quarter, ULM would get within 10 points twice, at 55-45 on a jumper by Means and 59-49 on a jumper by Clark, but the Chanticleers maintained the double-digit lead. Coastal pushed the lead out to as much as 26 before taking the 79-54 decision.

"It's critical that we come with a significant leap in defensive effort, focus, toughness, understanding the stuff we've gone over in film, the opponent, scouting report, walk through, all those things," Dow said. "Time and time again, throughout the game we're getting beat up the floor in transition, even on made baskets. Points in the paint, points off turnovers, second chance points, it's not shocking that they won all of those (stat categories). Shooting 48 percent from the field, not shocking, 53 percent in the fourth quarter. All that's going to add up to making a struggle."

Another difference in the second half was turnovers. ULM committed just three turnovers in the first half, but turned it over 11 times in the second half.

"The things that they were doing in the second half were no different than what we saw in the first half," Dow said. "Even though we weren't shooting it incredibly well in the first half, we still had 33 points, so certainly a respectable effort in part because we kept turnovers down. Bad passes, poor decisions against the press at times, it felt like more than one occasion they took those turnovers and it led to a layup at the other end."

The first half went back-and-forth with four ties and four lead changes. Coastal jumped out to an 8-2 lead before the Warhawks tied the game on a 3-pointer by Amber Thompson and a 3-point play by Means. After the lead changed hands three more times, Coastal took a 17-15 lead after a quarter.

The teams traded baskets for much of the second quarter, with Coastal leading by as much as five and ULM getting as close as one at 23-22. Coastal led 35-33 at halftime.

Clark led ULM with 13 points while Goins added 10. Roche led four Chanticleers in double figures with 18 points, while DJ Williams tallied 17, Aja Blount picked up 13 and Breelyn Blanding added 11.

ULM shot 36.2 percent (21-of-58) from the field, 27.8 percent from 3-point range (5-of-18) and 53.8 percent at the free throw line (7-of-13). Coastal Carolina shot 48.4 percent from the floor (30-of-62), 50 percent from 3 (8-of-16) and 68.8 percent from the line (11-of-16). The Chanticleers out-rebounded ULM 45-28.

The Warhawks wrap up the quick two-game homestand on Saturday when they host Appalachian State, with tip-off at 2 p.m. at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. For tickets, call (318) 342-HAWK or visit ULMWarhawks.com. Links to live video, radio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.