ATLANTA – Two critical scoring droughts, one late in the second quarter and another in the middle of the third quarter, cost the ULM women's basketball team in a 68-52 loss at Georgia State Saturday afternoon at GSU Sports Arena.
"We continue to have scoring droughts," ULM head coach Brooks Donald Williams said. "It's something we have to continue to work on."
The game was back-and-forth early. The Warhawks took an early lead on a basket and two free throws from Diamond Brooks to lead 11-10 with 57 seconds left in the first quarter. Two more free throws by Kierra Crockett in the final minute gave the Warhawks a 13-12 edge after a quarter.
ULM opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer from Maddi Gatte put the Warhawks up four at 16-12. ULM resumed the advantage on another bucket inside from Brooks, who scored 10 of her team-high 15 points in the first half.
"I thought we did a good job of attacking their pressure and got her some easy looks," Williams said.
However, Georgia State held the Warhawks scoreless for the next 4:38 as the Panthers went on a 13-0 run, capped on a five-point possession in which GSU used free throws, offensive rebounds and fouls to keep the possession going. GSU led 27-18 with 3:22 left in the half.
ULM got on the board on a free throw by Whitney Goins, and Amber Thompson added a basket to bring ULM back within six at 27-21, but GSU scored the final five points of the half to lead 32-21 at halftime.
In the second half, ULM trailed by 11 at 39-28 when both teams went on long scoring droughts. ULM held Georgia State without a field goal for over six minutes, but also had a five minute drought simultaneously, and only scored two points, on a basket by Goins, during GSU's scoreless stretch. The Panthers led 44-32 after three quarters.
In the final quarter, ULM would get as close as 10 on the opening layup by Kierra Crockett, but GSU pushed the lead to as much as 20 in picking up the 68-52 win.
"I thought we were in attack mode to start," Williams said. "We did some good things scoring out of their pressure. In the second half, I thought they amped up the pressure and we didn't handle it quite as well."
In addition to a career-high 15 points from Brooks, Thompson tallied 13 points for ULM. Georgia State was led by a season-high 18 points from Jada Lewis while Taylor Henderson added 12. GSU entered the game shooting 19% from 3-point range, but hit 7-of-15 attempts at a 47% clip for the game.
The Warhawks return to Fant-Ewing Coliseum for a 6 p.m. tip-off vs. Troy on Wednesday. For tickets, call 318-342-HAWK or visit ULMWarhawks.com. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
