Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Louisiana Tech made a late run in the final five minutes, but its comeback effort fell short in a 72-66 loss to Sam Houston on Thursday night inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.
“Our fight in each half was different,” said head coach Talvin Hester. “I think their physicality put us in a place where we have not really been. We did things uncharacteristically like not rebound. In the first half, we gave up nine offensive rebounds. Come second half, we put up a big fight which gave us a chance.
“Then it comes down to the little things at that point. All those little things that we did not do, coupled with the deficit we put ourselves in, made it too hard to come back. We have to go back to the drawing board. We have a game on Saturday. We will try to end the season on the right note and then get ready for the tournament.”
LA Tech (21-9, 11-4 CUSA) found itself down by 18 to Sam Houston (19-11, 12-3 CUSA) with 5:07 to go in the contest.
Up until that point, not much had gone right for the Bulldogs. Offensively, they were shooting just 36.7 percent from the field until five minutes to play. Threes were not falling (tied a season low with three triples). Free throws were not falling (missed seven of their first 12 attempts). Meanwhile, the Bearkats were winning the battle of the boards and hitting timely threes.
The visiting team missed 17 of their first 20 attempts from beyond the arc, but they had a stretch in the second half where they made five of eight triples. One of those was by Anthony Wrzeszcz, which made it a 65-47 advantage for the Bearkats.
LA Tech did not lay down though. The Bulldogs went on a 17-2 run, making seven straight field goals in the process from five different players. It was Daniel Batcho who started the run with a made layup and capped the run with a dunk to bring the ‘Dogs to within one possession, down 67-64, with still 1:23 to play.
Needing to get one more defensive stop to have a chance to tie the thing, the Bearkats were able to take advantage of fouls called, which sent them to the free throw line. Sam Houston did not take a single field goal attempt in the final 2:45 of the game. Instead, they put the game out of reach from the charity stripe, knocking down seven of their last nine free throw attempts.
Neither team could pull away early as a two-point lead was the largest for either side through the first 13 minutes of the contest. Sam Houston made the first run of the game, scoring seven straight points, never trailing from there.
Batcho ended up scoring a game-high 20 points to go along with a game-high nine rebounds. Isaiah Crawford netted 16 points, plus two steals and three blocks on the defensive end. Tahlik Chavez was the third Bulldog in double figures with 12.
The Bearkats also had three players score double-digit points, led by Jaden Ray who came off the bench to tally 14 points to go along with six rebounds, and eight assists.
