In a battle of two titans to determine who sits alone atop the Sun Belt Conference ULM faced off against the Georgia Southern Eagles Saturday in the Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
The two teams haven’t squared off since Feb. 27, 1982, when the Warhawks pulled off an 85-73 victory. That victory came under first season head coach Mike Vining, who was honored tonight at half for his legendary 402 wins, which are only a part of his many accomplishments.
In this second meeting, despite battling the entire way, the Warhawks fell 57-53 in a game that went down until the very end.
Head Coach Keith Richard said that the teams struggles on the offensive side of the ball made winning difficult.
“We’re offensively challenged. We have to be perfect on defense and we were no different tonight than we are in a lot of games. We let the game get away from us two or three possessions there and we can’t do that because of our offensive woes.”
The Warhawks came into the game having won six out of their last seven and with an overall record of 12-7 and 6-2 in the conference. Georgia Southern came in with a record of 12-4 and 5-2 in the conference. The Eagles had one five of their last six.
The game started off strong for the Warhawks with the team grabbing an early lead on a couple of three pointers. Despite this the Eagles did not buckle and kept the game close with a few productive offensive trips of their own.
With just over eight minutes left in the half the Eagles took their first lead of the game of 16-14 on a three point shot. The lead came after a missed dunk and an and-1 gave the Eagles the momentum.
The back-and-forth battle would continue as halftime came, showing a 29-27 advantage for the Georgia Southern Eagles.
The Warhawks would play the Eagles close in the second half, but would be unable to completely close the gap. The Eagles would push the lead to as many as 9. A furious rally cut the lead back down to four again, but a Georgia Southern dunk sealed the game as the Warhawks fell 57-53.
The team travels to Alabama to take on Troy this Thursday the 29th. Then the Warhawks will look forward to hosting South Alabama next Saturday at Fant-Ewing Coliseum at 4 p.m.
