MONROE, La. – Troy used a 6-0 spurt in overtime to pull away from ULM in the extra session, as the Trojans defeated the Warhawks, 82-78, Wednesday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
 
The loss is the sixth straight for ULM (11-19 overall, 7-10 Sun Belt Conference), while Troy (18-12, 10-7) won for the fifth time in six games.
 
Tyreke Locure poured in a career-high 33 points for ULM while knocking down a career-best seven 3-point field-goals on eight attempts. He added eight rebounds, two assists and a steal. Savion Gallion also tallied a career-high with 15 points, draining 3-of-5 3-point field-goal attempts. Jamari Blackmon added 10 points. Christyon Eugene led Troy with 17 points (4-of-6 3-point field-goal attempts), while Zay Williams had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds, Aamer Muhammad added 14 points and Nelson Phillips chipped in 13 points.
 
"That's a tough loss because we did play so hard for most of the night," ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "We just didn't play good enough for a stretch there in the second half offensively. That really hurt us."
 
ULM trailed 18-17 on a dunk by Troy's Williams with 11:08 left in the first half. The Warhawks responded with a 12-0 run, which started with three consecutive 3-pointers from Locure, Gallion and Thomas Howell and ended with a 3-point play by Langston Powell, to go ahead 29-18 with 8:17 remaining in the half.
 
Troy answered with 10 of the next 12 points, as a 3-pointer by Kieffer Punter brought the Trojans within three, 31-28, with 4:52 left before the break. Blackmon put an end to the run for ULM, knocking down a step-back trey from the top of the key. Gallion knocked down his second triple of the night with 52 seconds left in the half to give ULM a nine-point halftime lead, 41-32.
 
The Trojans opened the second half with an 8-0 run, as a 3-pointer by Muhammad closed the gap to one, 41-40. Blackmon again ended the run with another step-back 3-pointer. A triple from Locure extended ULM's lead back to seven, 50-43, at the 15:05 mark.
 
ULM then went cold, going scoreless over the next 8:28 as Troy embarked on a 16-0 run. Christian Turner's layup gave Troy the final lead change of the night, 51-50, with 10:24 left. Treys by Jackson Fields and Phillips and a fast-break layup by Muhammad pushed the lead to nine, 59-50, to wrap up the run with 6:55 to play.
 
"We made 26 baskets on the night, and 13 of them were threes," Richard said. "That means there were only 13 buckets that we scored inside the 3-point line. When teams go to switching on us, which they did particularly in the second half, it becomes difficult for us sometimes. The way to beat switching is you either throw it inside on the mismatches or you drive on the mismatches and then you play from there. We've struggled with that all year. It came back, I thought, to bite us again in the second half."
 
The Warhawks battled back. Trailing by six with 1:56 left, Locure knocked down his fifth 3-pointer to cut the deficit in half, 64-61. After Howell came up with a block and rebound on the defensive end, Locure drained another triple on the fastbreak to tie the game at 64 with 1:31 remaining. Troy regained the lead on a jumper by Phillips with 1:05 left, and he added one-of-two free throws with 46 seconds remaining to push the lead to three, 67-64. After Devon Hancock missed a 3-pointer for the tie, Victor Bafutto grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked out to Locure, who collected his seventh trey of the night by knocking down another game-tying shot with 9.8 seconds left.
 
Troy missed two shots in its final possession of regulation, sending the game to overtime.
 
In the extra period, Muhammad opened with a 3-pointer to put Troy up, 70-67, with 3:41 left. The Trojans used a 6-0 spurt, which included a dunk by Phillips, a layup by Eugene and a dunk by Williams, to take a nine-point lead, 80-71, with 44 seconds left, putting the game away.
 
ULM shot 41% (26-of-63) from the field, 48% (13-of-27) from 3-point range and made 13-of-14 (93%) of its free-throw attempts. Troy shot 44% (30-of-69) from the floor, 42% (10-of-24) from 3-point range and made 12-of-20 (60%) of its free-throw attempts. The Trojans outrebounded ULM, 43-35, with 13 offensive rebounds, while ULM committed 14 turnovers to 11 for Troy.
 
ULM concludes the regular season with Senior Night at 6:30 p.m. Friday against Arkansas State at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.