NEW ORLEANS -- Marvin Jean-Pierre scored 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting and sixth-seeded Louisiana-Monroe beat No. 11 seed Arkansas State 76-54 in a first round game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Wednesday night.

Louisiana-Monroe (16-14) advances to play No. 3 seed Georgia Southern Friday night. Arkansas State (11-21) swept Louisiana-Monroe during the regular season and ended it with an 83-79 win over the Warhawks on March 3.

With the Warhawks up 16-14, Travis Munnings made a 3-pointer and followed with a layup and Louisiana-Monroe proceeded to outscore Arkansas State 23-11 over the last 8:50 of the first half. Munnings made 6 of 7 from the field for all 13 of his points while the Warhawks shot 17 of 29 (58.6 percent) and led 39-25 lead at intermission.

Michael Ertel's jump shot a little more than a minute into the second half started an 18-7 run and Louisiana-Monroe cruised from there. Ertel finished with 12.

Ty Cockfield led the Red Wolves with 18 points and Arkansas State missed 40 of 60 shots from the field.