Women’s Basketball: Green scores 32 in Cajuns’ loss to ULM

Grant Alexander • galexander@theadvertiser.com • December 22, 2008

A 32-point effort by Alexis Green was not enough to propel the UL women’s basketball team

over UL Monroe as the Warhawks posted an 81-70 win in Sun Belt Conference play at the

Cajundome on Sunday.

The loss pushes the Warhawk lead in the all-time series with the Cajuns to 32-5.

UL (2-10, 0-2) took a 35-33 lead into halftime, and for a while it looked like the Cajuns were having fun.

"We were having fun and playing with that intensity that we need," Green said. "Teams are going to have lapses, but you’ve got to play through them. We just can’t seem to do that right now."

The Warhawks (7-4, 2-0) stormed out of the locker room to take control of the game at 44-41 with 14:07 left. They never relinquished the lead, outscoring the Cajuns 48-35 in the second half.

"We didn’t play as hard as we needed to do and that was the difference," said UL coach Errol Rogers. "We’ve got to pick up the intensity of our play when things get tight."

The second half belonged to the ULM guards who took over the game. On the defensive side, they wreaked havoc in the Cajuns’ backcourt, picking off passes and forcing UL to start its offense deep into the play clock.

"They did a good job of getting into their offense," Green said. "They did their job, we didn’t do ours."

The first half was all runs to start the game with UL going on the first one, reeling off eight unanswered points. But UL M answered with an 11-2 run for a 25-24 lead with 4:26 left.

From that point it was back-and-forth until Mercedes Johnson hit a floater in the lane to give the Cajuns the lead going into halftime.

"You look at this team (ULM) on film and you can stop them," Rogers said. "We gave that No. 32 (Sannisha Williams 18 points, 18 rebounds) a career night.

"They had 17 offensive rebounds, we had four. You aren’t going to win games playing like that."

As for Green’s offensive explosion, "It’s no consolation," she said. "I’d rather score zero and win, honestly."

For ULM coach Mona Martin the win was No. 199 of her career.