Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brenden Sullivan Senior guard Courtney Lee drives to the basket against Louisiana-Monroe's guard Jonas Brown during the Hilltoppers last home game on Saturday night. Lee lead the Toppers to a 86-75 victory over ULM on senior night.

Sure there was plenty of hoopla in the minutes leading up to Western's 86-75 victory Saturday night at Diddle Arena.

Each senior was honored before the game, and each walked to center court to the treatment of standing ovations.

But as soon as the ball was tipped at the beginning, the hoopla ended and the slow start for the Toppers began.

Saturday's game came on the heels of Western's emotional six-point loss to South Alabama on Thursday night.

"I wouldn't say we had a hangover from the South Alabama game," senior guard Courtney Lee said. "It was a group of seniors out there to start the game that got emotional before the game and that can take a little bit away from your focus."

As much as Western struggled, Louisiana-Monroe succeeded.

The Warhawks shot 61 percent from the field, converting on four of seven attempts from three-point range.

But Western was able to hold their own, scoring 30 points of 21 ULM turnovers.

The Toppers bench also contributed, six players played 10-plus minutes and contributed 37 points to the cause.

"We'll take it," coach Darrin Horn said. "A win, is a win, is a win, is a win. It wasn't pretty, (we) did not play well. I take responsibility for not maybe getting us more prepared coming off that tough loss Thursday night."

A 11-0 run at the end of the half would put an end to any lingering effects from Thursday for the time being.

"We didn't panic," senior guard Ty Rogers said. "We knew we'd work too hard to let something like that happen, we just came out and just tried to focus in."

But once Western got the lead going into the half, the Toppers never looked back.

ULM was down 56-55 with 11:07 minutes to go, but Western would again build a larger lead.

The question down the stretch was whether Western could work to build a large enough lead and still have enough time left to let each senior come to the bench one last time on their own terms.

Not quite.

ULM didn't go down without a fight, hitting a pair of three pointers in the last minute and a half that would keep the ball game a two possession game.

And while the "Ad-am How-ard" chants were heard, Horn wasn't quite ready to put Howard in because of the close margin.

"He's a crowd favorite," Horn said. "And you know, there's a reason for that. He's a team favorite too."

The senior guard would finally check-in one last time with 21 seconds after Lee made the second of two free throws.

And fittingly enough, it was Howard who scored the last two points for the senior class at Diddle when he was fouled with .5 seconds left and hit a pair of free throws.

Walker out for season

Horn confirmed Monday that senior forward Mike Walker will miss the rest of the 2007-08 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Walker injured his knee in the second half of Western's 69-64 loss to South Alabama last Thursday.

"It's heartbreaking," Horn said. "Just for him personally because he's been through so much on and off the court."

Walker was not available for comment on Monday.

Reach Andrew Robinson at sports@chherald.com.