Courtesy of www.ulmathletics.com
The ULM men's basketball team will be returning home with a little more hardware after junior Tony Hooper was named Most Valuable Player of the Hawkeye Challenge on Saturday evening. Hooper led the Warhawks to the tournament tile of the 26th-annual Hawkeye Challenge after combining for a team-high 39 points.
Hooper scored 26 points against the host-Hawkeyes in the tournament's opening round, including 12 points in the second half and nine points in the overtime period.
The junior scored 13 points and added four rebounds in the championship game victory against Rice to help ULM become only the third program in Hawkeye Challenge history to claim the tournament's title.
Senior Jonas Brown was also named to the All-Tournament team after averaging 12.5 points per contest over the weekend. Brown finished with a team-best 10 assists in the two games while committing only four turnovers.
Against the Hawkeyes in the opening round, Brown tallied a career-high five steals and combined with Hooper to score all of the Warhawks points in the overtime period.
Tournament runner-up Rice picked up a pair of All-Tournament selections in Patrick Britton and Jasen Williams while host-Iowa?s Justin Johnson, the tournament?s leading scorer, was also named to the team.
ULM will focus on finals in the upcoming week before traveling to Thibodaux, La. to take on Nicholls State in the final contest of a three-game stretch away from Fant-Ewing Coliseum.