Majok Deng scored a career high 30 points and guard Nick Coppola matched his career high with 19 as UL Monroe took an 81-70 win over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns before 3,370 fans at Fant-Ewing Coliseum Thursday night in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams.
The Warhawks (4-2, 1-0 Sun Belt) never trailed in the contest as they used red-hot long range shooting to build a double digit lead in the first half, then withstood a Louisiana second half rally to notch the victory.
ULM which averaged just 22 percent from beyond the arc in their first five games, knocked down five of six triples in the first half and led by as many as 13 points on three occasions before taking a 42-31 lead into the locker room at halftime. ULM shot 57 percent overall in the first half.
The lead was still at eleven points, 49-38 but the Cajuns scored eight of the next nine points as Devonta Walker scored six straight and the Warhawks led by just four, 50-46, with 15:04 left.. ULM increased the lead to nine points before a Jay Hedgeman dunk made it 58-51. But Louisiana would not hit another field goal for the next five minutes, missing eleven in a row as ULM build the lead back to double digits and the Cajuns never got closer than six points the rest of the way.
Jamaal Samuel and Justin Roberson also scored in double figures with twelve and eleven points, respectively for ULM. The Cajuns placed four in double digits with Tyrone Wooten scoring eleven of his game-high twelve points in the first half. Hedgeman, Jay Wright and Shawn Long each added ten points for Louisiana (2-3, 0-1), which outrebounded ULM 37-31 in the contest.
The Cajuns shot just 39.7% for the contest, including a paltry 2-18 from beyond the arc.
Louisiana will be back home next Wednesday night against McNeese State at the Cajundome.

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