Monroe, La. - Arsula Clark's monster night pushed ULM past Arkansas State 65-53 Thursday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum, giving the Warhawks their first back-to-back Sun Belt Conference wins since sweeping Georgia Southern and Georgia State at home on March 3 and 5, 2016.
Clark saved her best for the second half, where she scored 27 of her career-high 33 points and pulled in eight of her career-high 14 rebounds.
"She's a special player," head coach Jeff Dow said. "She had it going. She has the incredible ability to get to the rim, almost at will. She'll split two defenders, sometimes has people draped all over her and makes some tough shots. Easily her most impressive all-around performance."
Clark also added four assists, three steals and a block, while shooting 11-of-21 from the floor and 11-of-13 at the free throw line.
"I know the 33 points were big, but to go 11-of-13 from the free throw line, and that's usually not her strength, hats off to her for that," Dow said. "Really had a tough first half from the field, she was 2-of-7 in the first half, bounces back to go 9-of-14 in the second half, which is huge. Six offensive rebounds, 14 rebounds total. The all-around performance, four assists, three steals, throws in a blocked shot for good measure as well."
ULM (10-18, 4-13 Sun Belt Conference) trailed for most of the first quarter until Amber Thompson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close the frame, giving the Warhawks a 16-12 lead. However, the second quarter belonged to A-State (11-17, 6-11), with the Red Wolves outscoring ULM 20-9 to take a 32-25 halftime lead.
ULM opened the third quarter on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to one at 32-31, but A-State continued to push the lead back to five or six points. The Red Wolves led by six late in the quarter when Clark scored on a layup before Thompson stole the inbound pass and was fouled, knocking down a free throw to bring the Warhawks within three at the end of the quarter, 42-39.
"It's the momentum," Dow said. "We had just scored, and now Amber has the presence of mind to run through that lane and get the steal and draw a foul and knock down a free throw, one more thing to just kind of give us a little boost going to the fourth quarter. We have a phrase that we use a lot, 'one second burst.' Sometimes, if you have a willingness to play hard for one second, you never know what might happen. And that's a one second burst. That's a classic example of it right there, is Amber making that steal and drawing the foul."
It sparked a big fourth quarter from the Warhawks. ULM trailed 48-44 before scoring six straight points, taking the lead on Thompson's mid-range baseline jumper with 5:54 left. After A-State tied the game on a jumper by Payton Tennison, the Warhawks took the lead for good on back-to-back buckets by Clark, including a three-point play, to go up 55-50 with 3:20 remaining. ULM closed the game on a 15-3 run. Clark scored 17 points and pulled in six rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.
Dow said Thompson gave his team a lift as well.
"Amber kind of got us going in the first quarter, hitting those 3s and going 3-of-6 (from 3-point range)," Dow said. "We switched defensively. We started putting her on (Jireh) Washington, she was starting to beat us off the dribble. I really don't recall her scoring from that point on. Amber had her for most of the fourth quarter and did an outstanding job slowing her down and keeping her off the free throw line."
Dow also credited contributions outside of scoring points.
"Lauren Fitch, tough night from the field and the free throw line, but goes and gets seven rebounds, plays 37 minutes and only one turnover," Dow said. "That's huge with as much as the ball is in her hands. Whitney was struggling from the field, but ends up hitting a huge 3 in the second half when we needed it. I thought Diamond Brooks did some good things as well, eight rebounds in only 22 minutes, three blocked shots, giving us a presence defensively around the rim."
Dow also celebrated his 500th career win combined between his assistant coaching and head coaching career.
The Warhawks close out the 2018-19 season on Saturday when they host Little Rock for Senior Day at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. ULM will honor its two seniors, Lauren Marker and Logan Oestreich, prior to the game. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com. For tickets, call (318) 342-HAWK or visit ULMWarhawks.com.
