Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
A tie game with seven minutes to go, Louisiana Tech was unable to pull off the upset as the Bulldogs fell, 81-71, to No. 16-ranked Memphis on Wednesday night at the FedEx Forum.
Going up against the top three-point shooting team in the country, LA Tech (7-2) showed its shooting ability by hitting a season-high 13 triples. However, the Bulldogs were not able to limit mistakes as turnovers and rebounding was too much to overcome.
“We played hard,” said head coach Talvin Hester. “We did not turn it over in the second half like we did in the first half. But 20 turnovers and 20 offensive rebounds by your opponent does not give you a chance to win. And when you put them on the free throw line 33 times.
“We have to eliminate mistakes. I tell the team all the time it is not a game of making great plays, it is a game of limiting mistakes. Right now, we are making too many mistakes. If we can clean these up, we have a good team here.”
LA Tech turned it over a season-high 20 times, leading to 31 points for Memphis (7-1). Then there was the inability to win the battle on the glass as the Tigers secured 20 offensive boards, leading to 21 second chance points.
Despite committing 14 first-half turnovers (five on the first five possessions), LA Tech still had a 38-37 halftime lead. The one-point edge was thanks in large part to the outside shooting of the Bulldogs, in particular Al Green who came off the bench to drain four threes in the first stanza, including one that tied it up at 33-33.
“Before long we are going to be shocked by Al Green’s performances,” said Hester. “He keeps doing it game after game. He was super efficient. We are really good when he is on the floor.”
The ‘Dogs, down as much as eight, secured their first lead of the game on the next possession when Kaden Cooper got the putback on the offensive rebound.
The Tigers regained the lead three minutes into the second half and later went on a 7-0 run to build an 11-point advantage, their largest of the game, with 11:05 to go in the game.
LA Tech battled back yet again, countering with a 13-2 run over the course of four minutes to tie the contest up at 63-63 with seven minutes to play. The run was spearheaded by Sean Newman Jr. who dished out two of his game-high 11 assists to kick-start it and sank a deep three-pointer and driving layup. The bucket to knot the game up was provided by Amaree Abram who got the steal and fastbreak layup.
Memphis punched back though with the help of free throws (made 22 of 33 attempts from the charity stripe) to put together a 9-0 run to stymie the momentum of the Bulldogs.
Newman Jr. hit his second three-pointer to stop the bleeding. Adding a Daniel Batcho free throw put LA Tech down, 72-67, with 1:39 to play but second chance points and free throws helped Memphis put the game out of reach.
Five Bulldogs scored in double figures, led by Green off the bench with 18. Newman Jr. registered his third double-double of the season with 13 points to go along with his 11 assists. Leading scorer Batcho was limited to 12 points but had six blocks for a second straight game. Abram and Kaden Cooper each tallied 10.
Tech hit 13-of-23 three-pointers and shot over 50 percent from the field (25-49) for the game.
“It comes from good shots,” said Hester. “It is not like we did anything special. We took the opportunities that were given to us. They were mostly catch-and-shoot, open threes that we got to go down. Once we settled in, we played with Memphis. We have to be tough enough on the glass and get more 50-50 balls going forward.”
The two-headed monster of PJ Haggerty and Tyrese Hunter led the Tigers with 23 and 20 points, respectively.
