MONROE, La. – ULM's Michael Ertel set a school record with 11 3-pointers and the Warhawks hit 15 as a team in a 69-49 victory over the University of South Alabama men's basketball team Saturday afternoon at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

Ertel had 28 points and eight 3s in the first half alone as the Warhawks (6-7, 2-2 Sun Belt) raced out to a 33-12 lead. The Jaguars (8-7, 1-3) used an 8-0 run to get back within 13 with 3:24 left in the first half but a triple from Josh Nicholas seconds before the buzzer sent ULM into the break up 16.

The second half began the same way as the first ended, with an 11-3 rally from the Warhawks, spurred by three triples – two from Ertel – to go up 51-27. ULM trailed by no fewer than 17 the rest of the way.

Graduate Chad Lott paced the Jaguars with 13 points, and senior Trhae Mitchell added 11 off the bench.

GAME FACTS
- Ertel hit his first trey of day 45 seconds in, and by the 6:50 mark, had eight total; he had 26 of the team's 33 points, shooting 9 for 11 overall and 8 for 10 from distance
- The Jaguars answered with eight consecutive points and a 12-4 run to trail by 13 with a minute left in the half, but a '3' from Nicholas made it a 40-26 score at halftime
- Nicholas opened the second half with another triple, and three minutes into the half the Warhawks took their biggest lead of the contest, 51-27
- USA went to work at the free-throw line, scoring seven points at the stripe in an 11-4 run to trim the deficit to 55-38, only to see Ertel answer with a 3-pointer to start a 10-2 run to effectively put the game away
- JD Williams was the only other Warhawk in double-figures with 14; Chris Efretuei grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds

NOTES
- The Warhawks did not attempt a single free throw; that has happened by a Jaguar opponent just two other times since 1990, the last by Presbyterian on Feb. 25, 2008
- The last time South Alabama lost by 20 (March 7 at Coastal Carolina), it came back to defeat Appalachian State on the road
- ULM is 10-2 in the last 12 games against South Alabama
- Senior Josh Ajayi grabbed seven rebounds to give him 731 in his career, six away from a tie for third in school history
- Ajayi is one field goal away from tying Andy Denny for eighth in school history and one free throw away from tying Ken Williams for sixth at USA
- Lott reached double-digit points for the 10th time this season, one shy of Ajayi and Fox for the team lead
- Mitchell has alternated double-digit scoring performances in his last six outings; he is averaging 10.7 points in his last three games, all off the bench
- South Alabama fell to 1-6 this season when being outrebounded and 1-7 when being outshot
- Ertel's 11 treys are the most in Sun Belt history in a conference game
- The 39 points are the most by a USA opponent since Richard Toussaint from Bethune-Cookman had 41 on Feb. 20, 2002

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richie Riley
Opening statement: "We ran into a buzzsaw. We were really – and have been for awhile – struggling to score. Not only from a shot-making standpoint, but we did some of the craziest things with the ball today that I've ever seen. We're dribbling down, trying to flow into play and we lose the ball out of bounds or throw it over the backboard – we just did some crazy things. You obviously can't win like that.

Defensively, what stands out is the 15 made 3s, which is a lot, but what we talk about all the time is it's just 45 points. As a team, ULM averages 5.8 3s per game at 33%. They were hot today and he made a lot of shots. We didn't do a good enough job contesting (Ertel), especially early. We let him get too many rhythm 3s, but we didn't give up any free-throw attempts, which is an outlandish stat and we didn't do a good enough job taking away the paint. Our urgency to play has been our story all year; it's really frustrating. I don't know what to say. I told them they needed to get their head up and own it, and so do I. We played terrible, got beat and we have to go back, learn from it and go to Arlington and try to win."

On turning it around: "We have to be able to drive the basketball without losing it, we have to be able to make some wide open shots and just play better. We won at Louisiana on Thursday; we weren't great offensively, but we were good enough defensively. We missed a lot of shots, left a lot of points on the board and did the same thing today, but today it wasn't good enough because we allowed too much in the paint and they had one guy fly off and get really hot. We just didn't play very well. With a veteran team, you usually don't see guys making the mistakes that we make. So it's obviously really frustrating."

UP NEXT
The Jaguars wrap up their three-game road swing Monday night at 7 p.m. against UT Arlington.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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—USA—