Troy men capture late-game lead, falter in final minutes against Louisiana-Monroe
Published 3:27 am Saturday, January 17, 2015
![Troy University Photo Troy head coach Phil Cunningham coaches up his players in a huddle Thursday night against ULM.](https://www.troymessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2015/01/DSC1024web-300x214.jpg)
Troy University Photo
Troy head coach Phil Cunningham coaches up his players in a huddle Thursday night against ULM.
The Troy men’s basketball team snatched a late lead in their game Thursday night but couldn’t hold on, falling to conference opponent ULM, 63-54 at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
The skid continues for Troy (6-8, 1-4), who dropped their second-straight Sun Belt game Thursday night and their fourth of five overall games in conference.
Wesley Person led Troy in scoring on the night with 13 points. It was his 12th game of the season in which he scored in double figures. Person, who leads all freshmen in the nation with 2.9 3-pointers per game, was also 3-of-5 from behind the 3-point line in the game.
Kevin Thomas and Kelton Ford also scored in double figures Thursday night with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Musa Abdul-Aleem, who scored a career-high 33 points one week ago at Georgia State, was held to just three points on 1-of-1 shooting from the field.
Troy endured some shooting woes early, going just 1-of-7 from the field to start the game. In the meantime, ULM (10-6, 4-1) jumped out to a 10-3 lead.
The Trojans then responded with a 7-0 run of their own, tying the game at 10 midway through the first half.
Going into halftime, the Trojans trailed the Warhawks 29-24.
In the second half, Troy took its first lead of the game at 49-48 off of a big 3-pointer from Ford.
But the Warhawks quickly wrestled the lead back in their favor, responding with a 9-0 run.
In that time, the ULM defense held Troy scoreless for nearly five minutes and the Warhawks secured their biggest lead of the game at 59-49.
Majok Deng and Tyler Ongwae led ULM with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Ongwae also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds in the game, recording his second double-double of the season in the process.
One small victory was Troy’s 3-point shooting on the night. The Trojans shot 50 percent from behind the arc against a ULM defense who leads the conference in 3-point defense.
Conversely, Troy held ULM to just 26 percent shooting from downtown.