2011-12 Louisiana Tech Men's Basketball Media Guide

Page 81

LOUISIANA TECH

LAKE CHARLES, La. - For the second-straight game, the Louisiana Tech fell to a hot-shooting team on the road as it lost at McNeese State on Saturday at Burton Coliseum. The Bulldogs fell to 7-4 while the Cowboys improved to 5-3. “We’ve got to finish the ball inside,” said Tech head coach Kerry Rupp. “We had 18 offensive rebounds and we’ve got to score off of those. We have young guys and we are finding out what it’s all about right now. Defensively we’ve got to do a much better job. It’s not going to be easy and we’ve got to have a lot of effort from

Game 12 Louisiana Tech 80, Houston Baptist 57 12/14/10, Houston, Texas HOUSTON - Junior forward Olu Ashaolu recorded his sixth double-double of the season as the Louisiana Tech men’s basketball team defeated Houston Baptist 80-57 on Tuesday in Houston. Louisiana Tech shot a season-high 53.8 percent from the field and dominated in the post with a 46-14 points in the paint advantage. “Anytime we can get a win on the road, we are excited,” Tech head coach Kerry Rupp said. “We tried to be more active on the defensive end and I thought we did that for a while tonight. When you play hard, you have to play smart as well. It’s a learning process for a lot of our guys, but I thought we had good energy today.” Ashaolu missed just three shots all night as he was 10-for-13 from the field including one three-pointer in his only attempt for 21 points. He also recorded a season-high 13 rebounds. Freshman guard Cordarius Johnson scored a

season-best 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Joining the Bulldogs in double figures was senior guard DeAndre Brown who finished with 14 points. Despite shooting 58.1 percent from the field in the first half and holding HBU to 37 percent, the Bulldogs held just an eight point halftime lead, 43-35. Tech held its biggest lead of the half after Johnson hit one of his two three-pointers in the game at the 12:08 mark to go ahead 19-6. Tech started to take over the game in the second half as it scored eight unanswered points to take a 5740 lead with 14:37 remaining. The run was capped off by an Ashaolu alley-oop dunk off a pass from freshman guard Lonnie Smith, who made his first-career start in the game. Tech maintained a lead of around 20 points for the remainder of the contest and ended the game with its largest lead of the night as the Bulldogs improved their record to 8-4 on the season. The win also snapped a three-game road losing streak. HBU was led by Andrew Gonzalez who scored a game-high 33 points including five three-pointers. The Huskies shot 31.6 percent from the field and fell to 1-8 on the season.

Game 13 Louisiana Tech 62, UT Arlington 61 12/18/10, Ruston, La.

2011-12 BULLDOG BASKETBALL

Game 11 McNeese State 80, Louisiana Tech 70 12/11/10, Lake Charles, La.

everyone.” Tech scored only 13 second chance points off its 18 offensive rebounds. Freshman Lonnie Smith had a career-high 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field including 3-of-4 from three-point range. “Lonnie is showing some toughness and is doing the little things,” Rupp said. “He hustled, rebounded and shot the ball well.” Senior DeAndre Brown scored 10 points including a three-pointer, his 10th straight game with at least one trey. Junior Olu Ashaolu scored 11 points on 3-for-5 shooting. The Cowboys shot 53.5 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from three-point range as Tech allowed an opponent to shoot over 50 percent for the secondstraight game. The Bulldogs shot 38.9 percent from the field. Early on in the game Louisiana Tech tried to score from three-point range as eight of its first 11 field goal attempts were from beyond the arc. However they hit only two of those and trialed 22-13 at the 10:26 mark. The Bulldogs then went on a 14-3 run to grab a 27-25 lead with 5:45 remaining. During the run, Smith scored eight points off the bench including two three-pointers. Both team shot well in the first half as Tech was 46.2 percent from the field and MSU was 48.1 percent. With MSU leading 52-43, Smith drained a threepointer and then stole the in-bounds pass and Ashaolu hit a layup and was fouled. He hit the free throw and then Tech stole the ball again before MSU could take the ball past half court. On the possession, Ashaolu hit a layup to cut the deficit to just one point as Tech scored eight points in 21 seconds to trail 52-51 with 10:15 remaining in the game. However, that was as close as Tech would get as a 17-4 MSU run gave the Cowboys a 69-56 lead with 3:59 remaining. The lead grew to 14, their biggest of the game before winning by 10. Tech lost despite outrebounding MSU 39-26. It was the second-straight game in which Tech outrebounded its opponent, but lost the game. Patrick Richard led four Cowboys in double-figures with 20 points.

YTLA ISR TECH EVINU

toughen up. We have too many guys trying to get the easy looks and the easy three, but this isn’t an easy game.” The Demons (6-3) shot 50 percent from the field including 56.3 percent from three-point range. The Bulldogs (7-3) shot 37.9 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from three-point range with most of the scoring in the second half. In fact, Tech outscored NSU 54-48 in a high scoring second half as both teams shot over 50 percent. Brown was the key contributor as the Fort Worth, Texas native scored 25 points in the final half and finished 9-for-18 from the field. He was 6-for-8 from three-point range, which tied for the second-most three’s made for a Bulldog in a single game. Brown’s 31 points was the most scored by a Bulldog since Jamel Guyton’s 31 points against Fresno State on March 11 last season. Junior Olu Ashaolu scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. He was a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line and shot 6-of-9 from the field. Freshman Lonnie Smith joined Brown and Ashaolu in double figures with a career-high 12 points. All three of his field goals were from three-point range as he was 3-for-6. With Tech leading 5-3 early on, NSU scored 14 unanswered points to take a 17-5 lead. As Tech struggled to find open shots, Cordarius Johnson hit the Bulldog’s first field goal in nearly 10 minutes as NSU led 21-12 with 7:52 remaining. NSU led by 17 before a 6-0 Bulldog run cut it to 11, 35-24 with a minute to play. Louisiana Tech trailed 37-24 at halftime. For the half, the Bulldogs shot just 18.2 percent from the field (4-22). The Demons shot 47.4 percent. As Bulldogs shot much better in the second half, but the red hot Demons continued to fire away and led by their largest margin of the game, 20 (51-31) with 15:02 remaining. Brown then scored 12 of Tech’s next 22 points during a 22-10 run to cut the deficit to just eight points, 61-53 with 8:37 remaining. “He’s very gifted offensively,” Rupp said of Brown. “He made some big plays for us and gave us a chance to climb back into the game.” Tech continued to chip away as Brown hit a threepointer to bring the Bulldogs to within six points, 79-64, with 3:34 remaining. However, that was as close to taking the lead as Tech would get. NSU held on to beat Louisiana Tech and broke a 13 game losing streak against the Bulldogs. Devon Baker led the Demons with 21 points.

RUSTON, La. - Louisiana Tech got out to a 20-0 lead and hung on to a 62-61 win over UT Arlington on Saturday at the Thomas Assembly Center. Junior forward Olu Ashaolu recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting and 10 rebounds. He also added two blocks and two steals as Louisiana Tech improved to 9-4 on the season. Tech also won its 12th game in 13 tries against schools from the state of Texas. “We’ve struggled all year when we have a lead.” said Tech head coach Kerry Rupp. “Tonight we got out to

www.LATechSports.com

79


Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.