Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Louisiana Tech had four players score in double figures, led by Sean Newman Jr. who had a game-high 23 points, as the Bulldogs defeated Middle Tennessee, 85-74, on Thursday night inside the Murphy Center.
It was two different paths leading into the contest. LA Tech (18-9, 7-7 CUSA) was coming off two home losses while MTSU (17-9, 8-5 CUSA) was coming off two road wins. And it was the Bulldogs who prevailed, leading for 38:44 of the 40 minutes to sweep the Blue Raiders this regular season.
“I am proud of our guys,” said head coach Talvin Hester. “We still have room to grow. There are mistakes that you are putting your hands on your head thinking there is no way we made this mistake. But that is part of growth. We just have to continue to grow and get better.”
The game had several runs by both teams. The first one was provided solely by Al Green who opened the game with eight straight points for an early 8-0 lead.
With LA Tech up eight at 14-6, the Blue Raiders used a 9-0 run including back-to-back layups by Camryn Weston to take a one-point advantage 10 minutes into the first half. That would be the only lead that MTSU would have the entire night.
A Daniel Batcho dunk sparked a 12-0 run by the ‘Dogs that also included two three-pointers by Amaree Abram and a buried triple by Sean Elkinton to go up 26-15. After AJ Bates got in on the three-point action with one of his own, an 11-point lead was suddenly erased and the Bulldogs found themselves tied with the Blue Raiders at 33-33.
“Sean Elkinton was great tonight,” said Hester. “I don’t know of a player that came on the court that did not contribute in a good way. There were some guys that played great. Amaree Abram held [Jestin] Porter to two points in the second half. Al Green was a plus 18 on the stat sheet.”
Newman Jr. broke the lone tie in the game with three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt. He followed that up by finding Green on the wing for his third three to give LA Tech a 39-33 edge at halftime.
The Bulldogs hit the Blue Raiders again with a run right out of the second half as well, an 11-1 run to be exact that was capped off by an offensive rebound and putback by Elkinton to go up 50-36 and force a timeout by MTSU at the 15:01 mark of the stanza.
The home team would only slice their deficit down to nine points, which came in the final minute, as Newman Jr. put them away, scoring 10 of LA Tech’s last 12 points. Six of those points by Newman Jr. came from the free throw line where he was a perfect 11-for-11. He also dished out six assists.
“I feel like when you are running a press its like blitzing in football,” said Hester in reference to the Bulldogs breaking the Blue Raiders full-court press. “We ran the press break to get the ball out. When Sean gets that ball going full speed, it is hard to stay in front of him. He took the game in hand and took over late in the game.”
Green finished with 16 points (13 in the first half) while Abram and Batcho tallied 14 and 10 points, respectively, as LA Tech shot 44.8 percent from the field (26-of-58), 37.0 percent from beyond the arc (10-of-27), and 79.3 percent from the charity stripe (23-of-29).
MTSU’s leading scorer Jestin Porter led the way for the Blue Raiders with 16 points (had just two in the second half).
