Olivia Knight drives the ball to the basket.
Luke Richard/ULM Athletics
66
Arkansas St. ASU 5-7,0-1 Sun Belt
81
Winner ULM ULM 5-7,1-0 Sun Belt
Arkansas St. ASU
5-7,0-1 Sun Belt
66
Final
81
ULM ULM
5-7,1-0 Sun Belt
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Arkansas St. ASU 17 18 14 17 66
ULM ULM 29 18 14 20 81

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

All Five Starters Score in Double Figures; ULM Defeats A-State in Sun Belt Opener, 81-66

MONROE, La. – Olivia Knight, who set season highs with 17 points and seven rebounds, led all five starters in double-figure scoring as ULM opened Sun Belt Conference play with a victory for the first time in 11 seasons, defeating Arkansas State, 81-66, Thursday night in Fant-Ewing Coliseum. The Warhawks had lost 10 consecutive conference openers, with its last win coming against then Sun Belt-member Western Kentucky, 53-49, on Dec. 29, 2011.
 
ULM's 15-point win also snapped a 16-game losing streak in Sun Belt games and a 10-game home-court losing streak in league play. The Warhawks' last conference win came against Little Rock, 62-44, on Feb. 22, 2021. ULM also ended A-State's five-game winning streak in the series.
 
"I'm really proud of our effort," ULM head coach Brooks Donald Williams said. "We think Arkansas State is a really good team, and we played some really good basketball for most of the game. We had a little bit of a scoring drought in the third quarter, but Aasia Same came alive and gave us the big spark we were looking for. We had five players score in double figures and that was huge because that's the only way we're going to beat good teams, like Arkansas State."
 
The Red Wolves jumped out to a 12-6 advantage in the first 3 1/2 minutes, but ULM answered with an 18-2 spurt and grabbed a 24-14 lead as Knight banked in a runner from the left side of the lane with 1:31 on the clock in the opening quarter. The Warhawks hit 7-of-8 field-goal attempts while A-State went 1-for-8 from the floor during that stretch. Knight banked in a 3-pointer from 22-feet straightaway at the first-quarter buzzer to give ULM a 29-17 lead.
 
The Warhawks shot 59 percent (10-of-17) from the field in the first 10 minutes. Knight scored 10 points in the first period, hitting 3-of-4 shots from the floor including 2-of-3 from 3-point range, while Myca Trail came off the bench to contribute eight points.
 
A-State cut its deficit to seven points twice in the second quarter: at 29-22 on Keya Patton's 3-pointer from the left corner at the 8:54 mark and again at 32-25 on Annaliese Griffin's pull-up jumper from the free-throw line with 6:57 on the clock. ULM led by as many as 13 points in the second quarter and led by 12 at the intermission on Katlyn Manuel's layup, off an offensive rebound, with 11 second left.
 
Over the first 20 minutes, ULM (5-7, 1-0 Sun Belt) held a decided advantage in points in the paint, 22-14, and fast-break points, 11-4. Bre Sutton scored eight of ULM's 18 points in the second quarter, connecting on 4-of-5 field-goal attempts.  
 
"Bre Sutton really took control of the game in the second quarter," Williams said. "She didn't hesitate to get into the thick of things in the paint. Arkansas State plays so aggressively on defense; they stretch that defense out. Bre did a great job of breaking the defender down and getting into the interior of their defense."
 
The Red Wolves opened the third quarter with an 11-4 spurt and pulled to within 51-46 on Jade Upshaw's steal and layup with 5:04 on the clock. Aasia Sam hit a 15-foot jumper from the right wing, Kierra Brimzy made a 15-foot jumper from the free-throw line and Sam knocked down an off-balance 12-foot jumper in the lane at the buzzer as ULM closed the period on a 6-1 run to build a 61-49 lead after 30 minutes.
 
Sam connected on 5-of-8 shots from the floor in the third quarter, accounting for 10 of ULM's 14 points.
 
Diamond Brooks scored back-to-back layups, converting the second one on a skip pass from Manuel, to extend ULM's lead to 67-53 with 7:06 remaining in the fourth quarter. A-State (5-7, 0-1) got a layup from Patton and Lauryn Pendleton nailed a 15-foot jumper from the left baseline as the Red Wolves cut their deficit to nine at 70-61 with 4:06 on the clock. ULM connected on 8-of-10 free-throw attempts in the final 1:30 to ice the game.
 
"Diamond Brooks' four points were huge because they were momentum points in the fourth quarter," Brooks said. "We came out of timeouts and executed as a team on back-to-back plays, and that's something we just haven't seen much with such a young team. At times, we had four sophomores on the floor with Kierra Brimzy, a sixth-year senior. So, there was still a lot of youth on the floor and their execution down the stretch was huge.
 
"I also thought the team kept their composure when the lead was cut to five points in the third quarter and down to single digits again in the fourth quarter."
 
For the game, the Warhawks made 27-of-64 field-goal attempts (42 percent) and held A-State to 37-percent field-goal shooting (25-of-68). The two teams shot a combined 7-of-33 from behind the 3-point arc. ULM, which entered the game shooting 61 percent from the free-throw line, connected on 24-of-29 attempts (season-best 83 percent) from the charity stripe. ULM outrebounded the Red Wolves, 47-38.
 
"We executed our game plan well," Williams said. "Our plan was to attack, take them off the dribble and get some points in transition. We needed to make it a full-court game against them, and I thought we did a really good job of doing that. We got out of control at times (in transition), but we brought it back (under control). A lot of people contributed tonight.
 
"Throughout the pre-conference schedule, we talked about the importance of getting to the free-throw line, and tonight, we get to the line early and finished 24-of-29 from the stripe and those points mattered. A goal was to get into the bonus and be shooting from the line every single quarter. We did a good job of attacking and not being afraid of the physicality of driving the ball and getting to the rim."
 
Sam, who hit 6-of-13 shots from the field and went 3-for-3 from the free-throw line, matched her career high with 15 points.
 
"I can't say enough about Aasia Sam's performance," Williams said. "She was a different player today. She's got so much talent, so much ability. I was really proud of her toughness down the stretch."
 
Sutton finished with 13 points, a career-high nine rebounds and matched her career-best with eight assists. ULM also got 12 points from Brimzy and 10 from Manuel.
 
Pendleton, who recorded her second double-double of the season, paced A-State with a game-high 22 points to go along with 11 rebounds.  Two other Red Wolves scored in double figures as Patton added 14 points while Griffin chipped in with 13.
 
"Beginning with the (Dec. 19) Alcorn game, you could sense this team building the confidence to finish a game," ULM head coach Brooks Donald Williams said. "Alcorn has a good team and we made the plays down the stretch to close out a four-point win (69-65). Tonight's win will provide something else that we can build upon. It's exciting and I'm happy for our players, especially Diamond Brooks, Kierra Brimzy and Gara Beth Self. They've been here and helped us build this program. There haven't been many games like this where we were in control for nearly the entire game."
 
ULM closes out the Sun Belt home series on Saturday, Dec. 31 against Georgia State (6-8), with tipoff set for 11 a.m. The Panthers dropped their league opener at UL Lafayette, 54-41, Thursday night. General admission tickets are priced at $5.
 
The Warhawks look to win back-to-back Sun Belt games for the first time in four seasons (March 2019: at Coastal Carolina, 60-57; and vs. Arkansas State, 65-53). ULM also has an opportunity build its first three-game winning streak since posting five-straight non-conference victories early in the 2018-19 season.   
 
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