Warhawks whiteout Vermont

Defense clamps down in 2nd half, punches ticket to CBI finals

ULM forward Tylor Ongwae raised up for a three-pointer with 1:22 left in the game with Vermont.

The shot was from almost the same spot where Ongwae hit a pair of three’s in the Warhawks’ win over Eastern Michigan. Just like those shots, this jumper went in.

The shot iced the game for the home team. The final score was 71-65.

Keith Richard , ULM head coach, said the shot was a big part of the win.

“Tylor, you know, hit a 30-foot three, again. I guess that’s his thing,” Richard said.

Ongwae finished the game with 22 points. Ongwae’s frontcourt partners of Jamaal Samuel and Majok Deng also contributed double-digit performances. Samuel put up 14.

Deng finished with a double-double, grabbing 11 rebounds and scoring 22 points. He struggled from deep, however, finish 0-4 from long range. He pointed that out as a reason for his inside presence.

The Warhawks jumped out to a big lead early in the first half. They led by as many as 14.

Vermont would use an 11-0 run and a ULM scoring drought to bring a 35-33 lead into the half.

Early in the second half ULM made the switch to a 2-3 zone. The zone mainly consisted of a backline of Ongwae, Deng and Samuel. The length of the zone gave Vermont plenty of trouble offensively.

The Warhawks forced nine Vermont turnovers in the second half. Those turnovers directly led to 14 ULM points.

The zone also helped the Warhawks in shutting down Vermont’s three point shooters. The Catamounts finished 7-26 from beyond the arc on the night.

John Becker, Vermont’s head coach, said at some points the Warhawks “looked like Syracuse out there to us.”

That zone led to ULM going on a 17-2 run and taking an eight-point lead about midway through the second half.

Vermont would close the gap to four with 2:22 left. Ongwae hit a jumper and then the three-pointer to close the door on the Catamounts.

The win puts the Warhawks into the finals of the CBI.

ULM will enter a three-game series with Loyola University Chicago. The first game will be played Monday in Chicago. The series will then shift to Monroe for the Wednesday night game. The decisive third game will be played in Fant-Ewing Coliseum if necessary.

The Warhawks will be hoping to recreate the atmosphere in the team’s home games. The crowd of 3,368 was the second biggest crowd for a ULM home game this year.

The athletic department has announced that Wednesday’s game will be another “Whiteout Wednesday.”

There’s a sporting event bigger than the Super Bowl. Madness you say? Yeah, March Madness.

I know what you’re going to say. You’ll point to the stats that prove that the Super Bowl is the more watched event. You’ll say that 114.4 million people can’t be wrong. They can be and they are.

I, as one of those 114.4 million people, accept the Super Bowl as the pinnacle of sports. There’s no singular game that is bigger.

However, March Madness includes more than sixty games that compete for America’s love. Those games, they reach more than 180 million people.

Think about it. The Super Bowl features two teams.

Last year, they were New England and Seattle. Two cities on complete opposite sides of the country. If we disregard the bandwagoners, which we should, only two cities really have a dog in the fight.

In the NCAA tournament, which consists of 68 teams, there are seven cities that have a dog in the fight—and 59 other cities that have a cat, humanoid or some other type of mascot.

The NBA and MLB playoffs are about determining what team is the best.

The NCAA Tournament is about madness. Just the way it should be.