2012-13 BULLDOG BASKETBALL
Tech scored the final nine points of the half that was capped off by a jumper from Appleby to give him 16 points in the period. Smith was credited with an assist on the play to give him nine in the first 20 minutes of action. In the second half, the Bulldogs continued the onslaught as they stretched their lead to as much as 29 after two free throws from freshman forward Michale Kyser at the 12:20 mark. Gjuroski made his first career field goal on a fastbreak layup at the 4:52 mark on an assist from Smith. After Smith’s record breaking assist, the Bears would score the final four points of the game as all 13 Bulldogs saw playing time in the contest. Four Tech players reached double-figures in scoring led by Appleby’s 18 while Johnson added 16 and senior forward Romario Souza contributed 13 points. Freshman forward Michale Kyser scored a careerhigh 12 points and blocked five shots off the bench. Smith also paced the Bulldogs with six rebounds and two steals. Tech shot a season-high 50.8 percent (31-61) from the field while making eight three-pointers. They also made 14-of-18 (77.8 percent) of their shots at the free throw line. The Bulldogs outrebounded UCA 43-25 including 29-17 on the defensive glass. LaQuentin Miles led the Bears with 18 points and game-high three steals as Jordan Hanks and Garner added 13 and 11 points, respectively. Hanks grabbed seven rebounds and Ryan Williams had three assists off the bench to pace the squad. UCA made 22-of-63 (34.9 percent) field goal attempts and 15-of-23 (65.2 percent) at the charity stripe.
Game 28 Louisiana Tech 75, San Jose State 49 2/23/12, Ruston, La. RUSTON, La. - Senior forward Romario Souza scored a career-high 19 points, 13 in the first half, as Louisiana Tech defeated San Jose State 75-49 Thursday night at the Thomas Assembly Center for their third consecutive win. The Bulldogs improve to 14-14 on the year and 4-7 in the Western Athletic Conference while the Spartans fall to 9-18 and 1-10 in conference play. San Jose State took control of the game for the first two minutes as they went up 4-2. Tech came back with a 10-2 run as Souza scored eight of the Bulldogs points to take a six-point advantage with 13:54 remaining in the first period. LA Tech would stretch their lead to 28-18 after senior guard Trevor Gaskins made a jumper with less than six minutes until halftime. The Spartans scored the next four points to cut the Bulldogs’ advantage to six with 3:17 left in the half but Tech scored the final four points of the period to go into intermission leading 32-22. In the first 8:01 of the second half, the Bulldogs outscored SJSU 20-4 as Souza and Gaskins scored six and five points, respectively. Freshman guard Raheem Appleby’s layup with 7:10 left on the clock gave Tech their largest lead of the contest 63-31. The Spartans scored seven straight to decrease the Bulldogs advantage to 25 but a three-pointer from
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Gaskins ended Tech’s scoreless streak. With 59 seconds left on the clock, the Bulldog bench erupted as walk-on freshman forward Robby Price hit a jumper in the paint for the first points of his career. Stephon Smith of San Jose State would make a layup on the very next possession for the final basket of the game as Tech won by their largest margin of the year. Souza went 8-for-11 from the field with his made field goal total setting a new career-high for him. Appleby and Gaskins also reached double-figures in points with 17 and 15, respectively. Junior guard Brandon Gibson and Souza both grabbed eight rebounds apiece to lead the squad. Freshman Kenneth Smith dished out a game-high seven assists and is now five away from breaking the program record for assists in a season by a freshman. Fellow classmate Michale Kyser blocked two shots to give him 50 on the season and is one away from tying for 10th on the school’s career block list. Appleby was credited with four steals, matching his career-high for the third time this season. LA Tech shot over 50 percent from the field for the second straight game as they made a season-high 53.4 percent (31-of-58) of their field goal attempts. Defensively, the Bulldogs forced 18 turnovers with nine of them resulting in steals while also outrebounding SJSU 37-29. The Spartans were led by Wil Carter’s 17 points and eight rebounds. Matt Ballard came off the bench and pulled down seven rebounds. D.J. Brown paced the team with four assists while Keith Shamburger, the WAC leader in assist, was held to three assists and turned the ball over four times but did lead the Spartans with three steals on the night. San Jose State was held to 34.7 percent (17-of-49) shooting including 25.0 percent (4-for-16) from threepoint range but made 11-of-15 (73.3 percent) from the free throw line.
Game 29 Louisiana Tech 84, Hawai’i 64 2/25/12, Ruston, La. RUSTON, La. - On senior day in the Thomas Assembly Center, senior guard Trevor Gaskins scored a game-high 22 points, dished out a career-high eight assists and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Louisiana Tech to an 84-67 win over Hawaii Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs improve to 15-14 and 5-7 in the Western Athletic Conference while the Rainbow Warriors are now 15-13 overall and 6-6 in conference play. Gaskins rebounding total equaled his career-best while his points tied a season-high he set in the second game of the season at UT-Arlington. Tech fell behind 9-1 four minutes into the contest with the Bulldogs’ lone point coming on a free throw from Gaskins. A 7-0 run in a little over a minute pulled Tech to within one at the 14:44 mark of the first half. Hawaii responded by pushing their advantage to 24-18 on a Zane Johnson three-pointer with just under nine minutes until halftime. The Bulldogs took the lead in the contest 29-28 with 6:56 on the clock when sophomore guard Cordarius Johnson made a three-pointer on an assist from fellow classmate Kenyon McNeail. Freshman forward Michale Kyser came up with a big plays on the defensive and offensive ends of the
court about a minute and a half later when he blocked a shot from Vander Joaquim, grabbed the rebound and then finished the fastbreak with an alley-oop dunk on a pass from freshman guard Kenneth Smith. Tech stretched their first period lead to eight on two free throws from Gaskins with 7.5 seconds until halftime. The Rainbow Warriors’ Bobby Miles took the inbound pass and drove coast-to-coast for a layup with about two second left on the clock to cut the Bulldogs halftime advantage to 42-36. After junior guard Brandon Gibson made a threepoint basket 20 seconds into the second half to push Tech’s lead to nine, Hawaii’s Zane Johnson scored five straight points to make the score 45-41 in favor of LA Tech at the 18:01 mark. The Bulldogs responded with a 16-0 run over the next 6:03 to take a 20-point advantage, their largest of the game. Senior forward Romario Souza and freshman guard Raheem Appleby both scored four points apiece during the run. Hawaii came back to pull within single-digits, 6557, with just over six minutes to play when Jeremiah Ostrowski made two free throws. McNeail hit a three-pointer on the next possession while at the same time near mid-court, Joaquim was called for a foul away from the play that sent Kyser to the free throw line to shot 1-and-1. Kyser made both shots at the charity stripe to give LA Tech an extremely rare five-point play. That was the beginning of an 11-0 run from the Bulldogs which was capped off by a three-pointer from McNeail to push their lead to 76-57 with 3:52 to go in the contest. A layup from Garrett Jefferson cut the LA Tech advantage to 12 with just over a minute to play before the Bulldogs ended the game by scoring six of the final seven points. Gaskins shot 5-for-15 from the field including 4-of10 from beyond the arc and made 8-of-9 free throw attempts while Gibson added 16 points and grabbed six rebounds. Souza finished his final home game with six points while going 4-for-6 from the charity stripe, grabbed three rebounds, blocked a shot and was credited with a steal. The Tech freshman season records for assists and blocks were both tied as Smith dished out four assists and Kyser blocked two shots on the afternoon. As a team, the Bulldogs shot 44.6 percent (25-of56) from the field including 45.8 percent (11-for-24) from three-point range. They went 23-for-31 (74.5 percent) from the free throw line, both a season-high in attempts and makes. The Rainbow Warriors were led by Joaquim who recorded a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Ostrowski came close to a double-double of his own with 10 assists, a game-high, and seven rebounds. Zane Johnson contributed with 11 points as he made three shots from beyond the arc. Hawaii made 43.6 percent (24-of-55) of their field goal attempts but only made 5-of-15 from three-point range.
Game 30 Louisiana Tech 75, Fresno State 70 3/1/12, Fresno, Calif. FRESNO, Calif. - Behind a game-high 16 points from senior Trevor Gaskins and junior Brandon Gibson’s