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MONROE, La. -- The Samford University basketball team committed 15 turnovers and finished 1-of-15 from 3-point range Monday as the Bulldogs suffered an 86-52 defeat against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks in their third consecutive road game held at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
 
"The thing we're going to take away from tonight is that you have to be ready to play as soon as you hit the floor," said Samford head coach Bennie Seltzer. "I don't think we were quite ready to play tonight, for whatever reason, and that's on me. I'm the coach and I have to figure out a way to get our guys ready to play. We just weren't ready to come out and battle."
 
With the loss, Samford (1-3) dropped to 0-3 on the road this season. Since opening the 2013-14 campaign with a 79-62 home victory against Martin Methodist on Nov. 8, the Bulldogs have been defeated in three straight road games at UT Arlington, at Indiana and at ULM (1-1).
 
Samford will continue its current six-game road stretch Thursday at East Tennessee State.
 
On Monday, the Bulldogs were outscored in points off turnovers, 23-7, and in fast-break points, 14-0. Samford also suffered a 56-36 discrepancy in points in the paint.
 
ULM shot a sizzling 50.7 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Bulldogs, 42-32. The Warhawks' Amos Olatayo scored a game-high 22 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the floor and added four rebounds in 25 minutes of action.
 
Jayon James and Tylor Ongwae both registered 14 points apiece for ULM, while Daniel Grieves came off the bench to score 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field.
 
"ULM is a tough team," Seltzer said. "They play hard, they are athletic and at home they are a very good team. For us, when you're on the road, there's a level of toughness that you must have to compete and right now we're not there yet."
 
Samford led by as many as four points in the opening half, but ULM used a 17-4 run midway through the period to take a 19-10 advantage with 8:55 to play until the intermission.
 
The Warhawks took a 44:27 lead into halftime and led by as many as 41 points with 3:01 remaining in the game.
 
"Their game plan tonight was to drive it against us and they did a great job," said Seltzer. "With these new rules of defense, it's tough. You can't put your hands on them and they did an excellent job of driving us early and it got us back on our heels.
 
Samford committed 11 costly turnovers in the opening half and trailed ULM at the intermission, 44-27. The Bulldogs turned the ball over 11 times in the first 20 minutes of action as the Warhawks outscored Samford, 15-0, in points off turnovers.
 
ULM only committed three turnovers in the first period and shot 50 percent from the field. The Bulldogs shot a sizzling 52 percent from the floor in the opening half, but went 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.
 
"We're still a young team and ULM didn't do anything tonight that we weren't prepared for and that's the disappointing thing," Seltzer said. "If they would have come out here and played some surprise defenses against us or used some extravagant sets, then that would have been one thing. There was nothing that ULM did tonight on this floor that we didn't prepare for, so that's the disappointing part, especially with all of the film and teaching that we go through for each and every game."
 
Tim Williams led Samford in first-half scoring with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, while Raijon Kelly and Tyler Hood both added four points apiece. Williams, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-8 forward from Chicago, Ill., paced Samford with five rebounds.
 
The Warhawks' Olatayo scored a game-high 16 points in the first half Monday, while Ongwae added 10 points, three rebounds and two steals.
 
"We're not an excuse-making team, but we didn't play well and quite honestly we got our tails kicked tonight," said Seltzer. "As a man and as a team, we need to look ourselves in the mirror and say, 'Hey, we need to play better'. That's what we're going to do and it's perfectly clear in terms of what we need to do and how we need to play. Right now, it's probably clearer than ever."
 
Williams finished Monday's contest with a team-high 14 points, while Tyler Hood added 12 points and six rebounds. True freshman Isaiah Williams registered five points, a team-high four assists, three steals and a pair of rebounds.
 
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Thursday at 6 p.m. (CT) as the Bulldogs continue play in their current six-game road trip against future Southern Conference-opponent East Tennessee State at the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center.

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