ATLANTA — Daisha Bradford knocked down a career-high seven 3-point baskets and finished with 30 points as the ULM women's basketball team (9-4, 1-1 Sun Belt Conference) earned its first conference win of the season after defeating Georgia State (7-5, 1-1) 82-65 on Thursday (Jan. 4) night at the GSU Convocation Center in Atlanta.
 
"It feels good to get a road conference win and our first conference win at Georgia State," said ULM head coach Missy Bilderback. "Our kids stepped up and made so many plays. Nunu [Bradford] was incredible and had an outstanding performance. She and Sania [Wells] came up big for us late."
 
Bradford shot 11-of-16 from the field and added five rebounds, two assists and two steals. She reached the 30-point mark for the third time this season and was three points shy of her career-high that she accomplished earlier this season versus Milwaukee. Sania Wells finished with a season-high 18 points and threw in a trio of 3-point buckets to go along with three rebounds, two assists and one steal. Jakayla Johnson handed out a career-high eight assists and facilitated the offense. Johnson led the Warhawks with four steals and contributed 12 points and five boards. Lauren Gross tallied a pair of three-point buckets and finished with eight points.
 
The Warhawks made 12 shots from beyond the arc and shot 50 percent from deep. ULM held Georgia State to four 3-point baskets and 25 percent from downtown. The ULM defense forced 14 GSU turnovers and collected seven steals on the night.
 
Bradford lined up her first three-point bucket of the night that brought the Warhawks within one point at the 6:29 mark in the first quarter. Wells drilled triples on consecutive possessions that put the Warhawks in the lead. Her first longball was assisted by Bradford and her second three was a product of a Kyjai Miles offensive rebound. Johnson delivered a turnaround jumper in the paint and kept ULM ahead, 13-8 with 3:30 to go in the opening quarter. The Panthers scored six unanswered and led by one point under two minutes in the quarter. A free throw by Johnson and Bradford's second three-pointer of the quarter swung the lead back in ULM's favor. The Warhawks drilled four shots from beyond the arc in the first quarter and led 17-16.
 
ULM started the second quarter with a three-point bucket by Wells and a layup by Bradford and led by six. Georgia State evened the score at 24 halfway through the quarter. Bradford stepped up once again from beyond the arc and swished a pair of three-pointers to give her team a six-point cushion down the stretch. Bradford knocked down one more shot from downtown before the expiration of the half for her fifth 3-point field goal of the first half. ULM led 33-29 at the half.
 
Bradford did not skip a beat at the start of the second half and made another longball on ULM's first possession to push the Warhawks' lead to seven. Wells pulled up at the free throw line and cashed in a jumper that increased ULM's lead to 38-29. The home team rallied and trimmed ULM's lead to three points with 3:52 on the clock in the third. After a layup by Miles, Johnson completed an old-fashioned three-point play and the Warhawks' lead jumped back to eight points. Gross knocked down consecutive three-point attempts to give the Warhawks its first double-digit lead of the night with under two minutes left in the third quarter. ULM held a 55-46 advantage heading into the final quarter of play.
 
Brianna Harris scored four points to start the final quarter of action and ULM's lead increased to 13 points. Bradford converted her seventh 3-point bucket of the night to make the score 62-49 with less than eight minutes remaining. The Panthers managed to trim ULM's lead to seven points with 2:40 left in the fourth quarter. ULM closed the game out with a 10-1 scoring run and secured its first SBC win of the season. Bradford wrapped a bow on her impressive performance with a layup before the final buzzer to complete her 30-point outing.
 
The ULM women's basketball team will wrap up its two-game road trip in Georgia on Saturday (Jan. 6) at Georgia Southern. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT from Statesboro.
 
"We are playing a really good Georgia Southern team on Saturday," said Bilderback. "We are going to enjoy this win tonight, go get ice cream and rest before heading to Statesboro."