Grambling State Hands ULM Warkhawks an -- L, 59-54

MONROE, Louisiana – Despite taking a 10-point lead to the locker room at halftime thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer, the ULM women’s basketball team’s offense came to a standstill in the third quarter, allowing visiting Grambling to hand the Warhawks a 59-54 defeat on Tuesday night.

THE TURNING POINT

ULM shot just 4-of-15 in the third quarter (26.7 percent), while Grambling erased the halftime deficit by shooting 47 percent (8-of-17) in the quarter and outscored the Warhawks 22-10 in the period. The teams’ third quarter shooting percentages nearly flipped from the second half numbers – ULM knocked down 41 percent of its shots in the second quarter (compared to Grambling’s 25 percent) to take the 10-point advantage into the locker room.

Tied at 48-all with 7:38 to play, Grambling closed the game on an 11-6 run as ULM was able to tally just four points over the final 2:15 of action.

NOTABLES

-Stephanie Ratliff finished with the game’s only double-double in the loss, notching 16 rebounds and 14 points before fouling out in the final minute. The senior filled her final stat line, adding two blocks and two steals in 32 minutes of action in addition to her double-double numbers.

-Alexis Collins played all 40 minutes for ULM, also finishing with 14 points, as she tallied a 5-for-10 shooting night from the floor. Two of Collins’ buckets came from three-point range, and she added two rebounds and two assists from her guard position.

-The Warhawks finished the night with 27 turnovers as a team, which turned into 21 Grambling points off those miscues.

-ULM’s 10-point halftime lead turned out to be its biggest advantage of the night, while Grambling led by as many as 12 during the first quarter. The game was tied at seven different points, but the lead only changed four times during the night.

-ULM outrebounded Grambling by a 50-39 overall margin, pulling down 32 defensive rebounds (64 percent).

-Grambling finished with a final shooting percentage of 34.4 percent (22-of-64 from the floor) and ULM connected at a 33.3 percent clip (20-of-60) while both sides hit five three-point attempts (ULM 5-for-27, Grambling 5-of-14).

-As a team, ULM finished with more points in the paint (28-24), more second chance points (18-15) and more points from its bench (15-10) than Grambling. Grambling controlled two key stats – total turnovers (15 compared to ULM’s 27) and points off turnovers (21-11 advantage.

Grambling’s Shakyla Hill (19 points) and Jazmin Boyd (16 points) were the game’s high scores, while Jazmine Torian pulled down a team-high eight rebounds for the visitors.

QUOTABLES FROM HEAD COACH JEFF DOW

On the game – “Sometimes it is as simple as defending, rebounding and taking care of the ball. The first half we hold them to zero free throws and in the second half they shot 20 free throws. The turnovers – obviously that’s 12 more opportunities for them to shot. Some of them were as simple as I say ‘playing catch.’ You have to look the ball in your hands, catch it with two hands…do the fundamental things. We got off to a slow start, rallied and went into halftime with a 10-point lead. They started the second half quick and I felt like we never really totally recovered from that. We never answered their run with a run of our own.

Going Forward – “We have to move on. We did some good things in stretches tonight. We have to learn from this game. We have a lot of newcomers – whether it be junior college players, freshmen or even some of our returning players in different roles than they had last year. It’s been a tough stretch with three games in five days with keeping the players motivated and focused. We’ll keep fresh mentally and physically and put ourselves in the best opportunity to succeed down at Nicholls.”

UP NEXT

-ULM hits the road for a Saturday road contest at Nicolls State on Saturday afternoon, the second game of a five-game stretch the Warhawks will play against schools from the state of Louisiana across the next three weeks. Tipoff in Thibodeaux is set for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. ULM returns home for two straight contests inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum beginning next Tuesday night
against LSU-Alexandria.

BOX SCORE

UNIIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA-MONROE ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS