Final Stats | Quotes | Notes

MONROE, La. (AP) -- Jalen Jones shot 9 for 12 and scored 23 points in 27 minutes and UTA pulled away from ULM after halftime for a 72-57 win Thursday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

The win handed the Mavericks the outright Sun Belt Conference regular season title and their 24th win of the year, equaling a program-high. UTA will be the top seed in next week's Sun Belt Championships in New Orleans.

UTA (24-6, 14-3 Sun Belt) led 31-30 at halftime and went on a 19-9 run to start the second half. The Mavericks pushed their lead to 50-39 before ULM rallied with jumpers from Nick Coppola, Marcus Washington and Prince Cooper to reduce the deficit to five.

But Drew Charles made two foul shots, Jones had a 3, a jumper and a layup, and Erick Neal added a jumper and the Mavericks led 61-48 with 4:48 to go and owned a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Neal finished with 12 points, Faith Pope 11 and Kevin Hervey 10.

Travis Munnings led ULM (8-22, 2-15) with 17 points. Washington added 12 and Coppola 11.

UTA returns to action in its final game of the regular season Saturday with a 7:15 p.m. contest at Louisiana. ULM ends its regular season with a 2 p.m. tipoff Saturday at home against Texas State.