Texas A&M is off to a strong start, winning its first two games by an average of 34 points, and will look to further that momentum when it faces Louisiana-Monroe on Monday night in College Station, Texas.
The Aggies (2-0) are coming off a 104-67 victory over Northern Kentucky on Friday, a night in which six Texas A&M players reached double figures in scoring.
Jordan Pope led the way with 18 points, while Mackenzie Mgbako added 14.
The Aggies drained 12 3-pointers, shooting 41.4% from deep. Defensively, they forced 23 turnovers and held Northern Kentucky to 34.5% shooting from the field.
“I liked that game,” Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan said. “I thought we played really well. Played really hard in the game. Our deal is we’ve got to be the hardest-playing team that’s ever played college basketball to compete in this league.
“We had some lows in the last game (a 97-66 win Tuesday over Alabama State), but I really felt that was just as close to 40 minutes of tenacity that you’re going to see, with pace on offense and then just relentless defense for this time of year. And that’s what this group has got to rally around.”
Texas A&M hopes to apply the same type of all-around pressure to ULM, which is led by first-year coach Ryan Cross.
The Warhawks (1-1) dropped their season opener to Central Michigan last Monday before defeating Champion Christian 99-55 on Wednesday. Dayjaun Anderson scored 24 points in the victory.
Quaran McPherson is another scoring threat for ULM, as he had 24 points vs. Central Michigan and 13 against Champion Christian.
ULM is starting a four-game road trip, including back-to-back games in Texas, playing at A&M on Monday and at TCU on Tuesday.
At Sun Belt Conference media day last month, Cross spoke about the challenging early season schedule.
“Hopefully, we’ve got a group of guys that can prove that we can improve throughout the season,” he said. “We’ll make strides. We’ll go through these growing pains early and, come January, we hope we’re a team that’s ready to compete in the Sun Belt Conference.”
