GAME NOTES: Fant-Ewing Coliseum comes alive once more on Wednesday night, as the ULM Warhawks host the Eastern Michigan Eagles in the first round of the CBI Tournament.

The Warhawks are back in the postseason for the 10th time in program history, but the first in nearly two decades and are hoping to secure just their second victory ever in such an outing. The team finished in a tie for second in the Sun Belt Conference this season and while ULM managed to take down South Alabama in the conference tournament last week by a score of 77-59, last Saturday saw the squad bow to Georgia Southern by a single point, 44-43.

ULM is sporting an overall record of 21-12 and it learned more than a few lessons by producing 14 wins in conference play, the most ever for the program in the SBC.

As for the Eagles, a team which represent the Mid-American Conference, they played quite well during the non-conference portion of the schedule, posting seven straight wins right out of the chute. However, the MAC slate proved to be much more difficult as EMU posted a mark of just 8-10. At home the Eagles lost only three times in 19 opportunities, but on the road they realized only five victories in 15 chances.

Eastern Michigan, which lost to Toledo in the conference tournament (78-67) last week, has an all-time record of 4-6 in postseason appearances, losing to Columbia in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament last year.

The Warhawks won the only previous meeting between these two programs, a 70-67 decision during the 1972-73 campaign when ULM was still known as Northeast Louisiana University.

The winner of this meeting advances to the quarterfinals on Monday to face the survivor of the Stony Brook/Mercer encounter.

On a team that was serving up just under 70 ppg, the Eagles were paced by Raven Lee with his 16.7 ppg, although his output might have been even greater if not for fouling out of four contests and being caught in foul trouble in other instances. Mike Talley was responsible for another 12.7 ppg, led the unit with 145 assists and was also tops on the steals list with 55 as the team ranked among the best in the country in the latter department with about nine thefts per contest.

Karrington Ward (12.6 ppg) hit the glass harder than anyone on the Eagles, resulting in 6.5 rpg, not to mention his effort in the paint culminating with 46 blocked shots. Because of his presence and the aggressive style of the Eagles, they were one of the top defenses in the MAC as they allowed foes to convert only 38.4 percent from the field.

While the Eagles brag of having a tight defensive unit, ULM is actually a few steps ahead, ranking sixth in the nation by limiting opponents to only 37.9 percent from the field, ninth in the country with those teams hitting on only 29.3 percent behind the 3-point line as well. Put it all together and the Warhawks surrendered only 59.7 ppg, the best mark in the Sun Belt.

Under Keith Richard, the SBC Coach of the Year, the Warhawks notched a pair of six-game win streaks for the first time in more than two decades and a lot of the credit needs to go to Tylor Ongwae, an All-SBC First Team selection who averaged 13.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg, not to mention 91 assists and 33 steals as he did a little bit of everything for the group. Majok Deng accounted for 10.0 ppg and Nick Coppola 9.6 ppg, the latter giving the Warhawks their best shot at perimeter success.

The defensive battle that should be on display in this meeting could swing either way, but given that the Warhawks will have the crowd behind them this time around, assume the hosts will hold the edge no matter how slim.