Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Louisiana Tech had its five-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday night, falling by a score of 74-65 to New Mexico in front of 10,216 fans inside The Pit.
“We knew it was going to be a physical game,” said head coach Talvin Hester. “At the end of the day, the second chance points they got, the fastbreak points they got, really hurt us. We will continue to fight and get better.”
LA Tech (5-2) did enough defensively against one of the top scoring offenses in the country in New Mexico (6-1). The Bulldogs held the Logos to just 37.9 percent shooting.
However, the ‘Dogs did not have enough go their way offensively to pull off the road upset, shooting a season-low 35.6 percent. While they were efficient from beyond the arc (8-of-19), LA Tech could not get many baskets to fall around the rim. Plus, starting point guard Sean Newman Jr. got hurt early in the contest and was able to make his usual impact.
“When we are missing easy shots, we have to rely on our defense a lot more,” said Hester. “I felt like we got some of the shots we wanted and late in the half they started going in. We spotted them too many points early. I was proud of our fight in the second half, but we have to put two halves together.”
It was 7-2 in favor of the Bulldogs after three minutes, but the Lobos came with an offensive blitz, going on a 16-1 run to take an 18-8 lead with 10:43 to go in the first half.
LA Tech could not buy a bucket, making just four of its first 22 shots. Down 12 late, the Bulldogs were able to find a glimmer of offense, primarily due to Isaiah Crawford who scored 10 of his team’s last 15 points of the half. He ended up with 13 of his game-high 24 points in the first stanza, including a half-court buzzer beater to make it a 35-28 deficit.
Crawford’s and-one got the Bulldogs back to within seven early in the second half, but another blitz came by the Lobos. This one was ignited by Jemarl Baker Jr. who buried back-to-back three-pointers as part of an 8-0 run that took just a minute to happen.
UNM got up by as much as 18, but the ‘Dogs continued to hang around. A driving layup by Jordan Crawford made it a 64-54 game with 3:28 to play, a bucket that forced a timeout by the Lobos.
“I was proud of Jordan,” said Hester. “He stayed on the attack and did things we were asking of him. He can grow from here.”
It was Baker again though putting UNM on his back, draining his sixth three following the TO in route to a game-high 18 points.
While Isaiah Crawford matched his season high in scoring, Jordan Crawford had a season-high 12 points as the Bulldogs only other double-digit scorer. Daniel Batcho finished with nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
