GAME NOTES: With a shot at the 2015 College Basketball Invitational Final Four on the line, the ULM Warhawks will travel to Georgia to challenge the Mercer Bears in a quarterfinal round contest at Hawkins Arena on Monday.

The Warhawks advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 71-67 victory over Eastern Michigan on Wednesday night. The win bumped ULM's overall record to 22-12, and was the first ever CBI victory by a team from the Sun Belt Conference.

After surviving 23 lead changes, Mercer knocked off Stony Brook, 72-70, Wednesday night to clinch its spot in the quarterfinals. The Bears now sit at 19-15 overall.

This will be the 10th all-time meeting between these programs on the hardwood, with ULM leading the series 7-2. These squads have not played since Feb. 20, 1982, when the Warhawks held off Mercer 66-65.

ULM shot 44.6 percent from the field against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday and went 16-of-22 on free-throw attempts. The Warhawks held Eastern Michigan to a 37.7 shooting percentage, which included just 7-of-24 from 3-point distance. ULM out-rebounded the Eagles, 40-27. Tylor Ongwae scored a season-high 26 points and dished out six assists for ULM, while Jamaal Samuel finished with 15 points and eight rebounds in the win.

Ongwae is the top scorer for ULM with 13.9 ppg, while Majok Deng is second on the team with 10.1 ppg. Deng is also the Warhawks' top rebounder with 7.2 rpg. ULM scores 64.5 ppg and allows its opponents to score 59.9 ppg, which gives the Warhawks a +4.6 scoring margin. ULM has a 42.9 field-goal percentage and allows teams to convert just 37.9 percent of their tries from the field. Although the Warhawks connect on only 30.8 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc, opponents are only converting 29.3 percent of their 3-point field-goal tries.

Ike Nwamu knocked down a jumper with two seconds remaining in Mercer's game against Stony Brook which sealed the Bears' victory and helped Mercer advance out of the first round. Nwamu led Mercer with 25 points and six assists while T.J. Hallice finished with 13 points and eight boards in the win. The Bears shot 45 percent from the field and held the Sea Wolves to a 36.8 field-goal percentage.

Nwamu is Mercer's leading scorer with 15 ppg, while Darious Moten is second on the team in scoring with 11.4 ppg. Hallice is the team's top rebounder with 6.5 rpg. The Bears convert 44.1 percent of their field-goal attempts and score 66.6 ppg. Defensively, Mercer allows opponents to tally 62.5 ppg and convert 41.3 percent of their field-goal tries.

Mercer is currently 3-1 in its last four contests and averaged 76.7 ppg in the three victories. ULM has also gone 3-1 in its last four game, and it only allowed teams to score an average of 55.6 ppg during that stretch. In a matchup between a team scoring plenty of points and a team playing exceptional defense, look for ULM's inability to convert 3-point field-goals to come back and haunt them in this contest.