ULM falls in season finale
Looking for momentum to close out the regular season, the Warhawks hosted in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday afternoon. The Cajuns had won four of the past five in the series, but the one ULM win in that stretch was to close out last season.
This season would not be a repeat though as Louisiana-Lafayette snapped their two game skid with a 71-63 win inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
Advertisement
The Warhawks would have just a pair of leads, and both were in the opening moments of the contest, before the Cajuns opened up the game with a 9-0 run as they looked to have the game well in hand.
ULM (4-22, 3-17) would use a 14-5 run to pull back to within a pair, but poor shooting from the home team, just 39.1%, helped Louisiana-Lafayette (12-19, 8-12) to hold a 34-26 halftime lead.
The second half saw the Cajuns continue to have the hot hand as they built a game high 14 point lead. ULM would make a game of it late in the second half, as a late 6-2 run pulled the Warhawks within four points, but were never able to pull any closer in the contest.
While [db]Amos Olatayo[/db] was unable to connect from beyond the three-point arc, the junior lead his team with 21 points despite missing a few minutes of action from cramps. [db]Trent Mackey[/db] and [db]Jayon James[/db] each had 12 points.
ULM will now get ready for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. Tip off for the Warhawks, the 11th seed, will be 6pm Friday night.
"Just getting to go is a success in itself, "Head Coach Keith Richard said. "We were not able to go last year, and were not supposed to be able to go this year, but won our appeal. That will be an experience for those guys this year and I'm looking forward to it."