NICEVILLE, Fla. – Loyola Maryland's Kenneth Jones made a floater in the lane with seven seconds left and ULM's Jamari Blackmon had his jumper from the top of the key blocked as time expired, as Loyola held off ULM, 65-64, Saturday to conclude the Emerald Coast Classic at Raider Arena in Niceville, Florida.
 
"I hate that they lost the game right there in the last couple of seconds," ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "We missed a one-and-one and we gave up a shot in the paint on the other end. You can't do that to win a close game. What was encouraging was the last 10 minutes or so of the half and the percentage that we shot."
 
ULM erased a 14-point second-half deficit to take the lead, but Loyola answered for the win. Graduate forward Victor Bafutto, who had his first start as a Warhawk, had a monster day, going for 20 points (8-of-9 field-goal attempts, 4-of-4 free-throw attempts) with eight rebounds and one assist. Thomas Howell added 12 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, while Savion Gallion had 11 points with four rebounds and Jamari Blackmon added 10 points and five assists. Chris Kuzemka led three Greyhounds in double figures with a career-high 12 points (4-of-7 3-point shooting).
 
"We got the ball inside to Victor there in the second half a good bit," Richard said. "He was tall enough to score down there. That really helped us. The group that was in there the last seven to eight minutes did a really good job on both ends, really."
 
The Greyhounds led by 14, 50-36, with 11:08 left, on a 3-pointer by Kenneth Jones. The Loyola lead was at 11, 58-47, with 5:19 to play after two free throws by David Brown III when ULM made its move.
 
The Warhawks went on a 13-0 run to take their first lead since 8-6. Savion Gallion started the run with a traditional three-point play, squeezing between two defenders at the left block to hit the layup and added the free throw. Bafutto added a layup and Gallion hit one-of-two free throws to cut the gap to five, 58-53, with 3:50 left.
 
Blackmon brought ULM within two with a transition 3-pointer with 3:25 remaining. Bafutto tied the game with a layup with 2:52 to go, and then gave ULM the 60-58 advantage with another bucket from the baseline with 2:12 to play.
 
Alonso Faure worked inside for a layup to knot the game at 60 for Loyola, but Thomas Howell answered with a jumper at the other end for ULM to lead again, 62-60, with 1:17 left.
 
Brown hit another trey for Loyola to put the Greyhounds on top, 63-62, with 59 seconds to play. Howell responded again at the other end with a hook shot from the paint to give ULM the 64-63 lead. After forcing a missed shot on the other end, Howell pulled in the rebound and Blackmon was fouled with 23 seconds left. However, Blackmon missed the front end of the one-and-one, giving Loyola one more chance.
 
"We really need to look at this last 10 to 12 minutes as a team and get the whole team playing that way," Richard said. "I think it will be beneficial for us, not just the five guys that were on the floor. This is how we want to look and if we can do that, I think we can find some success along the way."
 
The Warhawks started the game hot, scoring the first six points. Howell scored on the first two possessions and Bafutto added a hook shot from the paint to push the lead to 6-0 with 17:15 left in the half.
 
Loyola Maryland took over at that point, going on a 17-2 run to surge in front. The Greyhounds hit three consecutive 3-pointers to close out the run, with Kuzemka hitting a pair and Isaiah Alexander knocking one down as Loyola claimed a 17-8 lead with 7:24 to play before halftime.
 
The Greyhounds extended the lead to as much as 13 on a layup by Golden Dike with 5:34 left in the half to go up 22-9. ULM closed within seven at 25-18 as Tyreke Locure knocked down a layup after a steal by Howell. Loyola led 30-21 at halftime.
 
ULM plays its third game in four days and fourth game in eight days at 6 p.m. Monday when it rounds out a five-game road swing at Tulane.