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basketball Edit

Warhawks get road win at App State

BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State made 15 three-pointers and shot 60 percent from long-range, but it wasn’t enough as the ULM men’s basketball program scored the final six points of the game and got a stop at the buzzer for a 91-90 on Saturday at the Holmes Center.

ULM (11-12, 7-5 SBC) trailed by five with 1:45 remaining when it started to get stops, drove to the basket hard, drew fouls and made four free throws to get it down to a 90-89 deficit with 56 seconds left. After a rare missed three-pointer by APP (6-17, 4-8 SBC), the Warhawks had the ball with under 30 seconds left.

Junior Nick Coppola used a screen and rolled to the basket where he threw up a shot the bounced on the edge of the rim on his near-side and spun in good to put the Warhawks up 91-90 with 9.6 seconds left.

On the final possession of the game, APP’s Frank Eaves took a well-defended mid-range jumper that was off the mark. APP’s Ronshad Shabazz came flying in for the offensive rebound but his dunk hit the back iron of the rim at the last second.

The Mountaineers shot 31-54 (.574) from the field and 15-25 (.600) from long-range including 8-13 in the second half. ULM went 30-57 (.526), 5-11 (.455) from distance and 26-32 (.813) from the charity stripe.

Coppola registered a team-high 25 points, one away from his career-high, on 9-13 shooting. Senior Majok Deng finished with 22 points on 9-9 free throws, and senior Justin Roberson ended with 21 points and went 7-14 from the field.

Also in double-figures, senior Jamaal Samuel recorded 10 points and six rebounds. Senior DeMondre Harvey was just under double-digits with eight points and six rebounds. Freshman Travis Munnings posted five points and seven rebounds off the bench.

Shabazz led the Mountaineers with 27 points and Eaves had 21. Four different APP players made at least a trio of three-pointers in the game.

ULM started the game hot and scored the first nine points of the game including four from Roberson. APP came back with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 9-8 at the 14:42 mark. Still up 18-16, Munnings knocked down a three-pointer and Coppola made a lay-up to extend the edge to 23-16 with 9:23 left.

The Warhawks led 27-21 when the Mountaineers hit a jumper and three-pointer to make it 27-26 with 7:20 to go. APP took its first lead of the game, 32-31, after a three-point play with 5:17 remaining.

The Mountaineers were up 39-38 when ULM regained the lead, 44-39 after baskets by Munnings, Coppola and Roberson with 47 seconds left. The Mountaineers scored on their final possession, but the Warhawks carried a 44-41 lead at the break.

Defensive stops were hard to come by again on both ends of the floor in the second half, but APP made nine of its first 10 shots, including 4-4 from long-range to take a 66-64 lead with 12:25 remaining.

The teams exchanged blows for most of the half, with the Mountaineers hitting their three-point shots while the Warhawks pounded it inside. Neither team led by more than four up until the 3:41 mark. ULM was down 81-80 when Shabazz made a lay-up and Eaves hit a jumper to give APP an 87-80 advantage with 3:13 left.

ULM came back with a three-pointer by Roberson and a jumper by Deng to cut it to 87-85 at the 2:19 mark. The Warhawks got unlucky defensively on the next possession when a loose ball got in the hands of APP’s Chris Burgess who made a tough three-pointer at the end of the shot clock to make it 90-85 with 1:45 remaining.

The Warhawks will return home on Thursday when it hosts Little Rock at 7:00 p.m. at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. The Warhawks are 9-0 (6-0 SBC) at home this season and have won every game by double-figures.

NOTES- The Warhawks are 5-0 in conference play this year when they score at least 80 points. ULM is 6-0 SBC when it shoots over 50 percent from the field

- ULM swept the season series and improved to 3-1 all-time against Appalachian State. The Warhawks won the first game this year, 72-56 on Dec. 31, 2015 and never trailed in the contest

- The Warhawks have now won five of their last six games

- ULM is 5-1 with the starting lineup of Coppola, Roberson, Deng, Samuel and Harvey

- The Warhawks are at least two games over .500 after 12 league games for the second year in a row

- It marked the second time this season where the opposition made 15 three-pointers but the Warhawks still won. It happened previously against UT Arlington in a 99-88 decision on Jan. 28. Those were the only two times ULM has allowed 75 points against an SBC opponent in the last 40 games – both resulting in victories

- It was ULM’s first one-point win since March 8, 2014 when it defeated Little Rock, 66-65 on the road. The Warhawks made a defensive stand at the buzzer in that game as well

- ULM entered the game leading the league in field goal percentage (.454) and upped it with a .526 mark. The Warhawks were also top-three in rebounding margin (+2.6) and outrebounded the Mountaineers 31-24

- ULM outscored APP 36-20 in the paint and 15-7 in second chance points

- Coppola, the reigning College Sports Madness SBC Player of the week winner, has scored at least 25 points in two of his last three games. He dished out four assists to move up to No. 4 all-time in ULM history with 343, surpassing Bobby Douglas who had 341. Coppola needs 22 more to catch Bob Carson and move up to third. Coppola notched his 41st career double-figure scoring game and 13th this season

- Deng entered the game ranking top-45 in the nation in scoring (19.3 ppg) and upped it with 22 points. He’s scored at least 13 points in 15 of his last 16 outings. Deng also increased his free throw percentage after going 9-9; he entered the game at a team-best .814. Deng scored at least 20 points for the 10th time in his career and eighth time this season. It was his 43rd career double-figure scoring game and 18th this year

- Roberson has now posted the six highest scoring games of his career in his last seven outings, all of at least 20 points. It marked his 30th career double-figure scoring game and 15th this season. He went 6-7 from the free throw line

- Samuel has scored in double-figures in four of his last five games. It was his 21st career double-figure scoring game and 13th this season

- Harvey, who has led the team in field goal percentage in back-to-back years, went 3-5 (.600) from the field

Quoting ULM head coach Keith RichardOpening Statement“I’m really, really happy for our players. We’ve had so many close losses on the road this year, and it’s been tough. We’ve had some gut-wrenching, heartbreaking losses. So for our players to win one like this, I am so happy for them. I know Appalachian State is disappointed, they played well enough to win. But winning on the road by one was a great, gutty effort by our team.”

On Nick Coppola“We started screening for him because of how APP was switching. It put a bigger guy on Nick and he was able to turn the corner, put the ball on the ground and dared a defender to come off Majok or Justin. Nick had some opportunities and he had some big buckets, especially that last one.”

On Majok having four fouls for a large part of the second half“He didn’t have many points at halftime and got going a little bit in the second half. Every bucket we made in the second half was critical because we couldn’t stop them. APP was hitting threes and they couldn’t miss. They made 15 of them and they were hard to guard. We were having problems defensively. It wasn’t a lack of effort, we were trying, but it just seemed like everything they were throwing up was going in. They hit some late in the shot clock, threes from the corner, but we kept hanging in there. We were getting to the free throw line, and we missed a couple, but we had a 6-0 run to end the game. We finally got a few stops which helped us win the game.”

Final thoughts“We’ve had our fair-share of bad luck. I’m really happy for our players. I told them before the game that there’s a month left in the regular season. The last chapter hadn’t been written yet and we could still make this season anything that we want to make. This game was a step in the right direction.”

Quoting ULM junior Nick CoppolaOn ULM’s final possession“When I got the handoff from Majok, they switched onto the big and I just felt like I could take him. I thought I got bumped a little bit so I threw it up and I actually didn’t even see it go in. It felt good going up though and I felt confident.”

On APP’s final possession“A lot of times it’s not the first shot that gets you beat, it’s the second shot. We’re fortunate that the kid missed the dunk. We didn’t defend well tonight but we were able to stick with it and get a road win.”

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