ULM Seeks to Extend Season & Home Winnings Streaks Saturday

Men's Basketball Dec 17

Game 11: Southern Miss (4-6, 0-0 C-USA) vs. ULM (6-4, 0-0 SBC)
Saturday, Dec. 18 | 2 p.m. CT
Fant-Ewing Coliseum (7,000) | Monroe La.
ESPN+ | KLIP 105.3 FM

TOY DRIVE
Bring a new, unwrapped toy to Saturday's ULM basketball doubleheader and receive 2 free general admission tickets ($24 value). Toys collected Saturday will be distributed in the local communities by the Salvation Army.

The ULM women's basketball teams faces McNeese State in the opening game of the doubleheader, with tipoff set for 12 p.m. in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

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2021-22 ULM Basketball Notes: Game 11 vs. Southern Miss

THE STORYLINE –
ULM plays host to Southern Miss Saturday in its only remaining home game in 2021. The Warhawks have won four-straight games, their longest win streak since 2018-19, while the Golden Eagles have dropped their last four.

Sophomore Nika Metskhvarishvili posted his first 20-point scoring game with a team-best 21 points in the win at SFA. Metskhvarishvili connected on four of ULM's season-high-tying 11 3-pointers and had 14 points in the first half.

The Warhawks' 81.4 points per game is still best in the Sun Belt and ULM bumped its assists-per-game average to 17.4 to hold onto the top spot in the league in that category as well.

Last season's game was the first meeting since 1999-2000 when Warhawk newcomer Andre Jones was 2 years of age.

THE STARTING FIVE –
• The Warhawks picked up their first road win of the season at SFA and it was a big one. Not only did ULM win its first game in seven attempts in Nacogdoches, according to kenpom.com, but it also recorded its best non-conference win since a Nov. 30, 2015, win over Chattanooga (64-54). The Warhawks look to keep their perfect record in Fant-Ewing Coliseum with a 4-0 mark so far.

• In games ULM has won, it's nearly a three-way tie in the scoring column with Russell Harrison and Andre Jones at 15.2 points per game and Koreem Ozier at 14.8. Thomas Howell is the top board-getter with 5.5 per game and Elijah Gonzales has 5.5 assists per game and a 4.71 assist-to-turnover ratio in Warhawk wins.

• ULM matched the streak of four-straight games with 80 points, accomplished last by the 2018-19 team, with its 82-69 win at SFA Tuesday. If the Warhawks score 80 points vs. Southern Miss, it will mark the first time in the Keith Richard era they will record five-straight games with 80 or more points.

• Nine different Warhawks have led the team in rebounding this season and with his career-best seven boards Tuesday, junior guard Elijah Gonzales became the fourth to appear in the rebounding leaders column at least twice. He is one of four Warhawks with a rebounding average of at least 3.7.

• After Saturday's home game vs. Southern Miss, the Warhawks become road warriors, playing at Lamar on Monday, Dec. 20, and traveling to the east coast for the start of Sun Belt Conference play after the holiday break. ULM won't be back in Fant-Ewing Coliseum for its league home opener until Jan. 6 vs. Little Rock.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS –
4 — A Warhawk has scored 20 or more points in each of the last four games with Russell Harrison, posting back-to-back such outings over this win streak. Harrison had a career-best 25 vs. Northwestern State (Dec. 4) and 24 vs. Louisiana College (Dec. 8) while Andre Jones started the trend with his ULM-best 21 vs. Centenary (Dec. 1) and Nika Metskhvarishvili posted his career-best 21 at SFA.
11 — Eleven 3-pointers made at SFA ties the Warhawks' season high for 2021-22 with eight combined coming off the hands of Nika Metskhvarishvili (4) and Russell Harrison (4). Koreem Ozier had two and Luke Phillips added one.
13 — Last Tuesday, the Warhawks handed SFA only its fourth home-court loss in its last 35 home games, and did so by the largest margin of victory in those contests, 13 points, in the 82-69 win in Nacogdoches.
27 — The Warhawks have outrebounded their opponents in three of their last four games and allowed an opponent season-low 27 in the win at SFA. ULM has a +0.7 rebounding margin during this four-game win streak and a composite +4.3 margin in its six wins.
52.4% — Not only did the Warhawks tie their 2021-22 season-high mark for 3-pointers with 11 at SFA, they went 11-for-21 for their season-best shooting percentage from beyond the arc at .524.
66.7 — In ULM's six wins, it has held all six opponents below 70 points, allowing an average of only 66.7 points per game. The Warhawks are averaging 94.8 points per game in their victories.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE –
According to kenpom.com (as of Dec. 17, 2021), ULM has the 15th-toughest strength of schedule in 2021-22, with a rating of +9.11. ESPN.com ranks the Warhawks' SOS at No. 61.

SOUTHERN SCOUTING REPORT –
Head Coach: Jay Ladner (Southern Miss, 1988)
Record at Southern Miss: 22-45 (3rd season)
Career record: 97-133 (8th season)
Ladner's USM Record vs. ULM: 1-0
Golden Eagles' top scorer: Tae Hardy (13.7 ppg.)
Golden Eagles' top rebounder: Tyler Stevenson (8.9 rpg.)

Southern Miss is one of the youngest teams in the nation in 2021-22 with only 1.22 years of collegiate playing experience. The Golden Eagles have two freshmen in the starting lineup and do not have any seniors on their roster.

Earlier this season, Southern Miss lost to the Ragin' Cajuns, 66-45 (Nov. 12), and South Alabama, 85-55 (Dec. 1), both Sun Belt Conference foes. The Golden Eagles are currently using the same starting five they employed vs. the Jaguars.

Junior forward Tyler Stevenson has four games with 10+ rebounds in 2021-22, including three double-doubles. He had a career-best 14 at Southern Illinois and is just four rebounds away from career board 500. His 8.9 rebounds per game this season ranks third in CUSA and 40th nationally.

Golden Eagles' head coach Jay Ladner, like Warhawks' bench boss Keith Richard, is also an alumnus of the program of which he is leading. Ladner played both basketball and baseball for Southern Miss. Ladner was on Golden Eagles' 1987 NIT championship team.

ULM/SOUTHERN MISS SERIES NOTES –
Southern Miss leads the overall series at 23-15, but is only 5-10 in games played in Monroe. The home team has won each of the last seven games in the series, with the only game played in this millennium occurring last season at Hattiesburg, Miss.

Keith Richard is 0-1 vs. Southern Miss as ULM head coach.

THE LAST MEETING–
SOUTHERN MISS 60, ULM 47, (Dec. 19, 2020, in Hattiesburg, Miss.):
ULM produced balanced scoring in the box score against Southern Miss, but not nearly enough to win. In a defensive struggle where offense was hard to muster for both teams, Southern Miss dropped the cold-shooting Warhawks 60-47 at Reed Green Coliseum.

ULM had 10 different players score but none reached double figures. The Warhawks shot just 35 percent (18-for-51) and made 17 turnovers, leading to 18 points for the home team. ULM was just 5-of-7 from the free throw line. The Golden Eagles (3-3) shot 34 percent (20-of-58) but also finished 13-of-18 from the free throw line.

Russell Harrison led ULM with nine points but was 2-for-12 from the field.

LaDavius Draine scored 17 and Tae Hardy added 16 to lead the Golden Eagles, who closed out their win with a 33-21 second half.

Southern Miss led 27-26 at halftime as both teams struggled to find an offensive rhythm. In a half full of runs and droughts for both squads. The Warhawks shot 32.3 percent (10-of-31) while the Golden Eagles shot 30.3 percent (10-of-33).

Southern Miss rode a 10-0 run and took 10-3 lead as Warhawks labored for four minutes, 11 seconds without scoring
The Warhawks utilized their own 12-2 run and regained the lead at 17-15 on Koreem Ozier's 3-pointer with 8:09 left in the first half. ULM's last lead of the half was 21-18 with 4:38 to go.

ULM opened the second half with six turnovers in the first four minutes, 9 seconds and a scoring drought that extended past six minutes. But with Southern Miss going through its own struggles offensively too, the Warhawks stayed within four points.

The Golden Eagles began to find their stroke and pull away. Jaron Pierre's back-to-back 3-pointers extended the lead to 44-35 for Southern Miss with 9:03 left in the game.

USM was up by 11, its largest lead to that point, when Erie Olonade hit a 3-pointer with 6:50 showing to make it a 48-40 score. However, the Warhawks went without a field goal until Harrison's 3-pointer with 2:24 remaining and failed to make a run back into contention.

THE LAST TIME OUT –
ULM 82, SFA 69 (Dec. 14, 2021, in Nacogdoches, Texas): Nika Metskhvarishvili came off the bench to score a career-high 21 points to help lead ULM to an 82-69 upset victory at SFA as the Warhawks extended their current winning streak to four games. It marked only SFA's fourth home-court loss in its last 35 games played in William R. Johnson Coliseum.

It marked ULM's second-straight win in the series – its longest winning streak against SFA since taking three in a row from 1998-2000. The 13-point victory also snapped the Warhawks' six-game losing streak in Nacogdoches. According to kenpom.com, ULM's road victory over No. 133 SFA marked the Warhawks' best non-conference win since knocking off No. 89 Chattanooga, 64-54, on Nov. 30, 2015.

Gavin Kensmil scored six consecutive points for SFA as the Lumberjacks jumped to an 11-7 lead with 15:40 left in the first half. SFA (8-3) led by as many as five points three times in the first nine minutes – the last time at 22-17 as David Kachelries beat the shot clock with a 15-foot jumper from the left wing with 11:06 on the clock. Langston Powell connected on a runner from the right side of the lane to spark a 10-2 run as ULM (6-4) took its first lead at 27-24 on Metskhvarishvili's 3-pointer from the left wing with 7:39 remaining in the opening half. The Warhawks outscored SFA, 12-4, over the next five minutes and took an 11-point lead into the intermission at 39-28. The Lumberjacks went the last 4 1/2 minutes without a field goal.

ULM outscored SFA, 22-6, over the final 11:05 in the first half, with Metskhvarishvili accounting for 14 of those points while hitting 6-of-9 field-goal attempts including 2-for-2 from 3-point range. the Warhawks shot 52 percent (16-for-31) from the floor, including 5-of-10 3s, in the opening period. SFA shot the ball at a 52-percent clip, but was only 1-of-9 from behind the 3-point arc (11 percent).

Early in the second half, SFA put together a 9-0 spurt and cut its deficit to 46-43 on two free throws by Latrell Jossell with 14:04 on the clock. Andre Jones converted two free throws and Metskhvarishvili buried a 3 from the right wing as ULM pushed its lead to eight points at 51-43 with 12:19 remaining.

Trailing 55-46, Jossell outscored ULM, 8-2, hitting a pair of free throws and back-to-back 3s from the left wing, as the Lumberjacks pulled to within 57-55 with 8:56 to play in the game. Koreem Ozier canned a 3-pointer from the top of the circle to spark an 11-0 run as ULM regained control at 73-59 on Thomas Howell's layup, on a feed from Jones, with 3:57 left. Ozier's put-back, off a missed 3, gave the Warhawks their largest lead at 16 points, 82-66, with 30 seconds to go.

As a team, ULM shot better than 50 percent from the field (54 percent; 32-of-59 including 11-of-21 3s) for the third time during its four-game winning streak. SFA finished at 49 percent (24-of-49) for the game, including 7-of-21 from 3-point distance. ULM outrebounded the Lumberjacks, 30-27, and held an edge in points in the paint, 38-30; second-chance points, 18-10; and bench points, 39-32.

Metskhvarishvili made 8-of-15 shots from the field, including 4-of-6 3-pointers, and collected six rebounds while playing a career-high 31 minutes.

Three other Warhawks scored in double figures, including Russell Harrison, who posted 14 points on 5-of-9 field-goal shooting including 4-of-7 3s, before fouling out with 6:40 left in the game. ULM got 13 points, four rebounds, six assists and four steals from Jones while Ozier came off the bench to score 13 points, with 10 of those coming in the second half.

Ozier, who missed last week's game against Louisiana Christian after returning to his hometown of Racine, Wisconsin, to celebrate the birth of his daughter, went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, including 2-for-2 from 3.

Jossell, who scored 23 second-half points, finished with a career high 28 to pace the Lumberjacks.

Kensmil, who added 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor, was the only other SFA player to reach double figures in scoring.

QUOTING KEITH RICHARD –

Scouting Southern Miss
"I'm really nervous about this game because when you look at them (Southern Miss) on film, the first thing I said to one of my assistants was 'I don't see it – why are they 4-6? Why are they not 8-2?' They look pretty good on film and they have good athletes. They are active, they play really hard on the defensive end, and on offense, they run a lot of good sets. We're going to have to play really, really well to win this game."

On withstanding SFA's rally
"Even for the returning players, we have been in this position, numerous times, and came up short. We didn't withstand the other team's rally and at times fell apart, and lost a lot of close games last year because of it. Fast forward to this year – SMU, we're up 10 with seven minutes to go and the same thing happens. For the first time in a long time, the players withstood the rally from SFA. They cut it to two, we didn't fold, and as a matter of fact, we made some big plays at that moment, stretched the lead back out, and went on and won the game. That's real growth for our team.

"I told them at the end of halftime, 'you go win this game for yourselves,' and there was a lot of jubilation in the locker room afterwards. But it wasn't just because they won again, they proved to themselves that they could do this and beat a team that doesn't lose on their homecourt very often and come out with a victory. Hopefully, that's a game we can draw back from all year long, that we can go win on the road."

On getting a spark and into the groove
"Numerous guys have come off the bench this year and provided a spark for us, and that's been a little different than in the past. We have to keep that going because we're in a good groove right now. We've been playing well for the last three weeks. We've improved tremendously over that time period, and the kids are getting more and more comfortable, whether they're starting or coming off the bench or whatever. They're really comfortable in their own skin, in what we're doing, and it's showing out there on the floor."

On winning on the road at SFA
"It was all about what we could accomplish on the defensive end of the floor. Could we stop some layups? Could we rebound the ball? I'm so happy for the players because this is a difficult matchup and a tough environment."

On Koreem Ozier's crunch-time efforts
"Koreem Ozier made some big-time plays during crunch time in the second half. He hit a big 3 from the top of the key and had a put-back. It looked like he hadn't missed a day of practice. Koreem played well and we certainly needed him."

2021-22 ULM STARTING LINEUPS –
Nov. 9 at LSU: Gonzales, Jones, Gee, Harrison, Howell
Nov. 12 at Auburn: Gonzales, Boston, Gee, Harrison, Howell
Nov. 16 vs. Champion Christian: Gonzales, Jones, Gee, Harrison, Howell
Nov. 22 vs. Northwestern State: Gonzales, Jones, Ozier, Harrison, Howell
Nov. 24 vs. Louisiana Tech: Gonzales, Jones, Ozier, Harrison, Howell
Nov. 28 at SMU: Jones, Ozier, Powell, Harrison, Howell
Dec. 1 vs. Centenary: Jones, Ozier, Powell, Harrison, Howell
Dec. 4 vs. Northwestern State: Gonzales, Ozier, Jones, Harrison, Howell
Dec. 8 vs. Louisiana Christian: Gonzales, Powell, Jones, Harrison, Howell
Dec. 14 at SFA: Gonzales, Powell, Jones, Harrison, Howell

Different Starting Combinations (5):
Gonzales, Ozier, Jones, Harrison, Howell: 3 (2-1)
Gonzales, Jones, Gee, Harrison, Howell: 2 (1-1)
Jones, Ozier, Powell, Harrison, Howell: 2 (1-1)
Gonzales, Boston, Gee, Harrison, Howell: 1 (0-1)
Gonzales, Powell, Jones, Harrison, Howell: 2 (2-0)

2021-22 WARHAWK STATISTICAL TRENDS –
Games played in Fant-Ewing Coliseum: 4-0
Games played on the road: 1-4
Games played at a neutral site: 1-0

Games played in November: 2-4
Games played in December: 4-0
Games played in January: 0-0
Games played in February: 0-0
Games played in March: 0-0

When leading at halftime: 6-2
When trailing at halftime: 0-2
When tied at halftime: 0-0

When shooting .500 or better from the field: 5-0
When shooting less than .500 from the field: 1-4
When opponent shoots .500 or better from the field: 0-2
When opponent shoots less than .500 from the floor: 6-2

When outrebounding opponent: 5-0
When outrebounded by opponent: 1-4
When rebounding totals are equal: 0-0

When hitting more free throws than opponent: 4-0
When hitting fewer free throws than opponent: 2-4
When hitting the same number of free throws as opponent: 0-0

When committing fewer turnovers than opponent: 6-0
When opponent commits fewer turnovers: 0-4
When turnover totals are equal: 0-0

When ULM scores less than 50 points: 0-1
When ULM scores 50-59 points: 0-0
When ULM scores 60-69 points: 0-2
When ULM scores 70-79 points: 0-1
When ULM scores 80-89 points: 3-0
When ULM scores 90+ points: 3-0

When opponent scores less than 50 points: 0-0
When opponent scores 50-59 points: 1-0
When opponent scores 60-69 points: 4-0
When opponent scores 70-79 points: 1-1
When opponent scores 80-89 points: 0-0
When opponent scores 90+ points: 0-3

Games decided by five points or less: 0-0
Games decided by 6-10 points: 0-1
Games decided by 11-19 points: 2-0
Games decided by 20 points or more: 4-3

Largest deficit overcome to win: 5 (16-11 and 20-15 at SFA, Dec. 14)
Largest lead surrendered in a loss: 10 (28-18 and 60-50 at SMU, Nov. 28)

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ULM Seeks to Extend Season & Home Winnings Streaks Saturday